I was offline for a few hours early this evening and returned to the media stream to find a new story reporting that the Steele Dossier and Fusion GPS’s research into Donald Trump and Russia was originally funded by a GOP campaign funder and then later funded by Democrats. In other words, we now know what we knew literally a year ago. Or to put it differently, Democrats agreed to fund continued research into Russia possibly owning Donald Trump after Republicans decided they didn’t care anymore.

Is this hyperbole? Not really. This is exactly what happened. And this has been known, widely reported, since before election day. Read More

I wanted to follow up on my post from last night about the latest news on the Steele Dossier. As I explained last night, the Democratic party’s top election lawyer, Marc Elias, deserves some kind of vast national, public thank you since his decision to fund the Fusion GPS/Steele research likely played a key role in blocking the ‘grand bargain’ and policy payoffs to Russia which President Trump was hoping to make in January and February of this year.

But let’s look at the follow-up story in The New York Times. Read More

“I went to an Ivy League college. I was a nice student. I did very well. I’m a very intelligent person.”

Fredo: "I'm smart! Not like everybody says… like dumb… I'm smart and I want respect! " pic.twitter.com/TQCWRImutL

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) October 25, 2017

Trump on call with Myeshia Johnson: “One of the great memories of all time.”

"One of the great memories of all time. " pic.twitter.com/OGddw0EEYr

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) October 25, 2017

President Trump just commented on a number of news stories before boarding Marine One to leave the White House. I’ve noted a couple memorable moments below. The really important one is about the Russia scandal and how he now believes he is vindicated in calling the entirety of the matter a hoax. Read More

Here’s my effort to game out the Arizona Senate race post-Jeff Flake (sub req).

Here’s a story in The Washington Post. On its face, it’s how things should work: bipartisan cooperation to make sure things run right. There seems to be bipartisan agreement that the board charged with providing financial oversight of Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy process should appoint an emergency manager to oversee the territory’s bankrupt power company, PREPA. Read More

Cam’s piece this morning on Democratic fundraising is a must-read. It also answered a key question for me. In every ‘the Dems will still blow it’ article I’ve read in recent weeks I hear that Republicans are beating Democrats in fundraising. Each time I read that I scratch my head because it certainly doesn’t square with what the political environment looks like. More specifically, I keep hearing that Republicans feel so under the gun about Obamacare because funders are simply refusing to keep giving unless the GOP can deliver some legislative victories. I also see example after example of Republicans retiring or considering retirement because they’re behind in the money chase. So what’s the deal? The key seems to be that the RNC actually is beating the DNC pretty handily. On every other front though, the Democrats are sporting the kind of big money advantage that usually presages big midterm gains. Read Cam’s report here.

With Devin Nunes now going to town over the “dossier” and trying to get the FBI to turn over materials from an active counter-intelligence and criminal investigation, we should remember the following. Whatever President Trump’s level of complicity in the Russian disruption campaign, there was a disruption campaign. Trying to disrupt the investigation may be something people think will protect Trump. But it impedes the actual investigation. Read More

A quick follow up about my questions from last night about the situation in Puerto Rico. I noted yesterday that the White House wants to have the board overseeing Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy appoint an emergency manager to oversee the territory’s power company and its accompanying reconstruction efforts. The guy they want to appoint is named Noel Zamot, a retired Air Force Colonel. Read More