Monthly Archives: August 2018

I feel very bad for the folks in Hawaii who have a big, probably-destructive hurricane bearing down on them. It makes me more frustrated that so many government resources are going towards nonsense and human misbehavior. Helping out our fellow citizens in times of disaster ought to take precedence over everything. Here's some of the everything…

• Hey, you'll never guess who doesn't think anyone should be investigating Donald Trump's personal life and affairs. It's Ken Starr, the guy who thought it was in the public interest to know every minute detail of Bill Clinton's sex life, right down to descriptions of the presidential penis.
• William Saletan lays out the case that Donald Trump betrayed his country and in the process, answers the oft-asked question, "Where's the collusion?" According to Mr. Saletan, it's all in the public record even before Robert Mueller's office files its report.
• The White House is opposing a bill that would make it more difficult for a foreign power to hack our elections. Gee, I can't imagine why they're against that. Adam K. Raymond has the story.
• As Steve Benen points out, Trump is doing everything he can to pretend that he and Michael Cohen were never close. One of these days, Donald Trump Jr is going to be indicted, someone will ask the president to comment and he'll say, "Donald Who?"
• Daniel Larison keeps writing about how Trump is botching up our relationship with Iran. It's turning out that undoing everything Obama did even when you don't have a better alternative is not a great way to formulate foreign policy.
• Ezra Klein points out that one of the key issues on which Trump won in 2016 was stamping out government corruption. It's going to be very difficult to run on that in 2020 if two-thirds of your associates are in prison.

I seem to be unable to turn on my TV without seeing Michael Avenatti. I even thought I saw him in an old Scooby Doo I wrote that was on Boomerang today. The guy's on so much that even Steve Harvey's saying, "Enough, already!"  Well, better him than Kellyanne Conway.

Oh, and by the way: I'm getting real tired of reporters trying to get Sarah Huckabee Sanders to admit that Trump did something wrong.  She's just doing her job.  The problem is that her job is to just keep saying, in answer to every question, "He did nothing wrong.  No charges have been filed."  It's like trying to get the recorded voice on the phone that tells you the time to instead tell you a knock-knock joke.  Sarah's not allowed to say what you want her to say, people!

An indecently adorable kitten…

A quick flashback to 2005 on this blog — and can you believe I've been doing this for longer than that? It had just been revealed that the infamous "Deep Throat" of Watergate was former F.B.I. biggie Mark Felt and I wrote this here…

I dunno about the other cable channels but MSNBC turned into the Bash Deep Throat Channel yesterday afternoon. They had three or four shows in a row on the unmasking of Mark Felt as the fabled secret source and Pat Buchanan was on every one of them to call Felt a "snake" or worse. At times, he was joined or spelled by other former Nixon aides, including David Gergen, G. Gordon Liddy, Monica Crowley and Chuck Colson, all suggesting that Felt had impure motives, that he disgraced his position, etc. One can understand a certain anger at the figurehead of Nixon's bringdown, but it seemed like a strained exercise. Any "whistleblower" is, almost by definition, going to cause his peers to feel betrayed. If nothing else, they have cause to be embarrassed that he did something to uncover wrongdoing while they supported it with their complicity.

For years after he got out of the slammer, Liddy was making the rounds of the talk shows, flogging his book and comparing John Dean to Judas Iscariot…an analogy which, as many interviewers pointed out, worked if you thought Richard Nixon was somehow comparable to Jesus Christ. Liddy kept saying that one of the lowest things one can do in the world is to "rat" on your friends, which struck me as a silly schoolyard comparison. You don't tell the teacher that Jimmy used too many paper towels in the little boys' room but if others are involved in serious crimes and you know about it, that's a different matter. One time, Liddy was advancing his view on Larry King's program and, in a rare instance of Mr. King challenging a guest, he asked how Liddy felt about some of John Gotti's men turning on him and testifying to help get him convicted. Were they "rats?" I remember the moment because it was one of those rare times on an interview show when you could see someone get knocked out. Liddy didn't have an answer.

As Jonathan Chait notes, Donald Trump seems to have the same definition of "loyalty" as Mafia bosses did: You don't tell the Feds that your boss is committing major crimes and having people whacked if they get in his way. One of the reasons Trump is in such trouble is that, first and foremost, he picked his staff largely on the basis of his concept of loyalty as opposed to, say, competence. And the second problem is that he didn't pick very well.

The other day after the double-header of Cohen and Manafort having the word "guilty" appended to their names, I talked with a friend who still backs Trump. Most of the folks I know in that category think Trump's a lying crook but they also think that of anyone else who's in a position to hold that job and they like the policies of the current lying crook more than most of the alternatives.

But this one friend is fantasizing about a day soon when the investigations all come up empty, Robert Mueller folds his hand because all he's got is a pair of deuces, and Trump is viewed as a respectable leader by most. I don't think that day is coming. I think it's going to be like this or worse…certainly for the rest of his stay in office and probably long after.

He thinks Trump is like teflon: The scandals don't stick. A lot of people think that (here's someone else saying it) but that's also what they said about "Teflon John" Gotti. The accusations of wrongdoing didn't stick to him until, one day, they did.

It's Baby Panda Time again! Lee Lee, a grown panda in the Chendgu Zoo in China gave birth to a healthy pair of twin cubs. Problem: Mother pandas who have twins typically care for one baby and abandon the other. Solution: Someone apparently saw The Parent Trap with Hayley Mills and decided to try the strategy from that film…

I can be slow at times but it's dawning on me why Rudy Giuliani is running around, saying things that don't make sense and which contradict what he said last week. It makes perfect sense if you figure he's playing to an audience of one.

It doesn't matter to this man if most people think he's a major weasel and a lawyer who doesn't know much about the law. All he cares about is if Donald Trump pats him on the head. Trump judges people by how fanatically they fight for him, not whether they succeed. I wonder what reward Rudy thinks he's going to reap but he's probably wrong. Chris Christie tried the same blind subservience and you saw where he is today. (By the way: Where is he today?)

I call your attention to two articles. The first is the best piece I've read about where we are after the Fast News Day we had yesterday. It's by Matt Yglesias and here's a key section…

…the Mueller investigation exists fundamentally not because Trump/Russia is the only thing worth investigating but because it happens to be the only thing that a handful of congressional Republicans wanted to see an investigation of. They've been comfortable sweeping everything else under the rug — Trump's shady business dealings, post-election financial conflicts of interest, and alleged sexual assaults.

A fluky confluence of circumstances elicited Cohen's confession, and now it's not clear what the system can or will do with the evidence he's provided. But what is abundantly clear is that the essentially uniform unwillingness of House and Senate Republicans to undertake any kind of meaningful oversight of the executive branch has left the country teetering in a state of perpetual crisis.

So that may be what the upcoming election will be about…do you want your representatives to tolerate and hide any crimes Trump and his mob may have committed? We're going to hear the word "accountability" a lot.

And then read this one by Matt Taibbi. It's not about Michael Cohen or Paul Manafort. It's about what's becoming the style of the Republican candidate and about Corey Stewart, Virginia's Republican candidate for the Senate. Key section…

If anyone were to try to articulate a political theory of Donald Trump, this might be it: lying-ism. It's not so much about policy — Stewart runs to both the left and right of traditional Republicans, depending on the issue — as it is about using aggression as an electoral strategy.

You turn everything into a fight, renouncing decorum as a trick of the establishment (Stewart actually promised to run a "vicious, ruthless" race). Then, court voters' secret resentments by relentlessly ripping your opponent as the Fucker Responsible for Everything, using accusations that are true, not true, doesn't matter, just make sure you never stop.

As I was reading Taibbi's piece, I came across a speech on CSPAN-2 — Celebrity Lawyer Michael Avenatti out in some rural community, giving a speech somewhere that sounded like a presidential campaign speech while all the time insisting he hasn't decided if he'll enter the race in 2020.

It also sounded like a Democratic version of the kind of speech Taibbi describes except that Avenatti's a Democrat and he's a lot more careful with the facts. But the selling point was not his policies. It was what a tough, take-no-prisoners kind of fighter he claims to be…and I don't know how I feel about that. I do know I don't like the emphasis on aggression over accuracy and how little that seems to matter to some people.

Last week in Maine, my pal Paul Harris and his wife were driving along U.S. Route 1 when they spotted a sign advertising a new musical based on the movie, Grumpy Old Men.  It stars Hal Linden and Sally Struthers, neither of whom plays one of the Grumpy Old Men.

They were unable to procure tickets to the (supposedly) Broadway-bound show at the Ogunquit Playhouse.  If they had, they would have seen some of the last work of my friend, the late Nick Meglin.  Nick, who left us suddenly last June, was a long-time editor for MAD Magazine.  Some called him the heart, soul and sense o' humor at that publication where he served for more than three decades but less than five.

In retirement, Nick turned his formidable skills to musical comedy.  He wrote the lyrics for Grumpy Old Men: The Musical and when I saw him at the end of May, he was looking forward to the tryout in Ogunquit.  Here is the bio of him that appears in the GOM:TM playbill…

NICK MEGLIN (Lyrics) was best known as the editor of MAD Magazine, a position he held for most of his career. His critically-acclaimed musical Tim & Scrooge (book and lyrics) won Broadway World's Best New Musical Award in 2016. Nick authored 15 books including "MAD About the 50's," "MAD About the 60's," "Rotten Rhymes and Other Crimes," "MAD Stew," and "Honor Thy Godfather," "Superfan," and "Superfan Again!" as well as articles in over 300 national publications. He was particularly proud of his book, "Drawing From Within," written with his daughter Diane, as well as an episode of "The Pink Panther" written with his son, Chris. An earlier publication, "The Art of Humorous Illustration," is considered the definitive work on the subject. Nick made over 50 TV appearances including "The Today Show," "60 Minutes," "Larry King," "Howard Stern," and "Robert Klein" and several NPR programs. Comedy albums include "Everything You Wanted to Know About the Godfather — But Don't Ask!"

He was also when I saw him excited about an upcoming production of his other show, Tim and Scrooge, but I'll be darned if I can remember where it is. Somewhere between now and Christmas, some theater in this country is doing that show and Nick planned to be there for that, too.

Anyway, it's oddly delightful to me that one friend of mine stumbled across another friend's show in what I assume is not a huge town. (Just checked: Population is 918. I assumed right.) Here's a feature about Grumpy Old Men: The Musical there. I'm sad that Nick's not around to see it and even sadder than he's not around so I can see him.

Didn't get a lot of work done today. The news was too interesting to not watch, especially Jake Tapper on CNN ping-ponging between coverage of the Michael Cohen court proceeding in Manhattan and the verdicts in the Paul Manafort trial in Alexandria.

Unlike some of my friends, I don't think this is the end of the Trump Presidency but it might be the beginning of the beginning of the end. As the people he's chosen to surround himself with go to jail, it's going to be harder and harder for his supporters to convince themselves that it's all Fake News and a big Witch Hunt. And everyone who works for Trump has to be thinking about Industrial Strength Ass-Covering and what they have to bargain with if/when it comes down to plea bargains.

I was struck by contrasts. They keep moving articles around on the front page of Talking Points Memo but a little while ago there, I read this statement from Michael Cohen's attorney, Lanny Davis…

Michael Cohen took this step today so that his family can move on to the next chapter. This is Michael fulfilling his promise made on July 2nd to put his family and country first and tell the truth about Donald Trump. Today he stood up and testified under oath that Donald Trump directed him to commit a crime by making payments to two women for the principal purpose of influencing an election. If those payments were a crime for Michael Cohen, then why wouldn't they be a crime for Donald Trump?

And right under it was this statement from Donald Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani…

There is no allegation of any wrongdoing against the President in the government's charges against Mr. Cohen. It is clear that, as the prosecutor noted, Mr. Cohen's actions reflect a pattern of lies and dishonesty over a significant period of time.

Sounds like Rudy borrowed one of Paul Manafort's ostrich jackets and buried his head in the sand.

• Unhappiest man in the country today: Donald Trump, whose lawyer has said he committed a crime at Trump's direction.
  Second unhappiest: Stephen Colbert, who's on vacation this week.

• But…but…I thought Donald Trump only surrounded himself with the best people…

Last June when Amber and I were in New York, a special joy was a private tour we took of the Ed Sullivan Theater in that city. Its tenant, Late Night with Stephen Colbert, was dark that week…which was great for us because no one was busy prepping a show and we could wander around and talk to folks. And a special joy within that special joy was talking with Pat Farmer, who is usually referred to as a longtime stagehand in that shrine to show business.

Actually, he has had other titles there — some involving props — and was a frequent on-camera presence when Dave Letterman did his program in that building. You may remember a recurring segment, "Pat and Kenny Read Oprah Transcripts." Most times when Dave did a bit right outside the studio, you could see Pat clearing the area or tossing something off the roof. From all reports, he was a tireless worker and very, very good at his job, no matter what silly job they stuck him with.

Pat retired last August 2 and on that night's Colbert episode, the host (as he often does) exited the stage and the cameras followed him into the lobby where a bar is set up. Usually, some sort of joke is set up there that pertains to the show just concluded and that night, it was Pat behind the bar. You saw him there under the credits but what you didn't see, because it was cut from the broadcast, was a nice acknowledgement of Pat's long service not just from Colbert but, via an e-mail Stephen read, from David Letterman. I don't think this video clip will be there forever but right now, you can watch it on this page.

Breaking news from Randy Rainbow…

• Could someone send a note into the Manafort Jury Room and tell them to hurry it up?

• Rudy Giuliani says, "Truth is relative and it's not absolute." In that case, Rudy, there can be no such thing as inaccurate reporting, right?

Most of my favorite moments at this year's Comic-Con International involved an amazing woman named Joye Murchison Kelly, who was one of the winners of the annual Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing. The award goes to a writer who produced a body of work that has not been properly recognized and/or rewarded. Who could be more deserving than Joye, who ghostwrote Wonder Woman comics in the forties for the character's creator, Dr. William Marston?

Joye came to Comic-Con — her first convention ever! — along with her husband Jack and we all instantly loved both of them. What a terrific couple! (And thanks to folks at DC Comics who paid for the airfare — first class, no less.) Joye had a great time. Jack had a great time. Everyone who met them had a great time…and we learned a lot about the history of the Amazon Princess.

A lot of that learning took place at a panel on Saturday afternoon and thanks to Jamie Coville, we have a recording of it for you. The first voice you hear is mine and a bit later, the splendid cartoonist-historian Trina Robbins joins me to interview Joye about her life and career. The conversation lasts about 57 minutes and after you listen to it, you can go to Jamie's page and find other MP3 recordings of programming at that convention and others, as well as a lot of keen photos. It's not as good as being at Comic-Con but it's a lot cheaper and less crowded.

Oh, boy.  Here's an amazing bit of video: An episode of The Admiral Broadway Revue from February 11, 1949.  Most homes in America didn't even have one of those newfangled television machines on that date but the ones who did could watch this show starring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca.  This was Sid's first series, the program that turned into the famous Your Show of Shows. Howard Morris and Carl Reiner were not a part of this endeavor.

The Admiral Broadway Revue was produced, directed and co-written by Max Liebman alone with two other writers — Mel Tolkin and Lucille Kallen. It was done live from New York on Friday nights, airing simultaneously on both the NBC and the DuMont networks from 1/28/49 to 6/3/49 so this is the third show. At some point during its run, Caesar began paying money out of his own pocket to a kid named Mel Brooks to help punch up the scripts. We don't know if that had happened yet.

It's a pretty good show…and a pretty good kinescope. You might want to watch a little of it if not the entire thing…