Ari Fleischer has taken to Twitter to defend his former boss George W. Bush from accusations of lying America into the Iraq War. As Matt Shuham amply shows elsewhere on TPM, Fleischer was quickly and thoroughly demolished by critics. Fleisher’s hapless performance got me thinking about how the debate over the Iraq War, the most consequential American foreign policy decision in the last fifty years, is now over.
The Miami Herald, which has been doing stellar reporting on this story, has found more evidence on the bizarrely light sentence Jeffrey Epstein was given in 2008 for soliciting prostitution from underage girls. According to the newspaper, “The lawyer for the 16-year-old girl who state prosecutors now say was the victim attached to the mysterious plea deal given to multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein says neither he nor his client was ever informed that it was her case that ended Epstein’s prosecution.”
Martha Gimbel used to work at the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) and has noticed that a new report for the CEA has some unusual interns:
The Economic Report of the President has revealed that the quality of interns at CEA is much better than it was when I was there….we never got cool ones like Steve Rogers, Bruce Wayne, Peter Parker, Aunt May, and John Cleese pic.twitter.com/qELM2729os
— Martha Gimbel (@marthagimbel) March 19, 2019
In 2010, David Frum observed that, “Republicans originally thought that Fox worked for us, and now we are discovering we work for Fox.”
I was reminded of Frum’s quip when I heard that former House Speaker Paul Ryan was joining the board of directors of Fox Corporation, the newly streamlined parent company of the right-wing news outlet.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is often described as the Latin American Trump, an identification that Trump himself seemed to endorse in today’s press conference. “We have many views that are similar,” Trump enthused. The President was so pleased that he suggested, in a bizarre off-the-cuff remark, that Brazil might possibly become “a NATO ally.”
Anyone can be startled by a yelping dog. The true detective, as Sherlock Holmes taught us, is the one who notices dogs that don’t bark and asks why they remained silent. Over at Vox, Matthew Yglesias points out that the Resistance, the guard dog whose vigilance played such a crucial role as a check against Donald Trump, has gone quiet since the Democrats won the House in the 2018 midterms.
Huge tranche of Michael Cohen search warrants made public this morning, albeit heavily redacted, are providing us with new insights into the origins of the criminal investigations into his business and political dealings.
First of all, I should introduce myself: I’m Jeet Heer, a contributing editor at The New Republic. I’m filling in for Josh as he takes a much-deserved break. Having followed TPM from its earliest days as a blog covering the 2000 (!) election and its aftermath, I’m honored to be here.
I wanted to flag a story from Monday night that is both comically absurd but also has a sinister side: Republican Congressman Devin Nunes’ announced lawsuit against Twitter and three Twitter accounts who he claims have defamed him.
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So, people. I’m going to be heading out for a bit. I’ll probably post my last post sometime this afternoon. I need some time off – to relax, recharge, spend as much time off the grid as I’m capable of. It’s been a grueling period. So I’m eager to disappear into my books, recharge and get ready for the next things. Our team will keep you up to speed on all the critical stories in my absence. I’ve invited Jeet Heer to take up my duties in the Editor’s Blog while I’m away.
Many of you likely know Jeet from his prolific Twitter account and work at The New Republic. If you’re not familiar with him you can listen to this podcast discussion we had back in December.
Have a great week.