From The Washington Post:
Rod J. Rosenstein, again, was in danger of losing his job. The New York Times had just reported that — in the heated days after James B. Comey was fired as FBI director — the deputy attorney general had suggested wearing a wire to surreptitiously record President Trump. Now Trump, traveling in New York, was on the phone, eager for an explanation.
Rosenstein — who, by one account, had gotten teary-eyed just before the call in a meeting with Trump’s chief of staff — sought to defuse the volatile situation and assure the president he was on his team, according to people familiar with matter. He criticized the Times report, published in late September, and blamed it on former deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe, whose recollections formed its basis. Then he talked about special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and told the president he would make sure Trump was treated fairly, people familiar with the conversation said.
“I give the investigation credibility,” Rosenstein said, according to an administration official with knowledge of what was said during the call. “I can land the plane.”
Rosenstein’s status in the eyes of the White House has been fluid, but it was perhaps never more tenuous than after the New York Times reported he had suggested wearing a wire to record Trump.
After the article was published, then-White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly summoned Rosenstein to discuss it. The deputy attorney general would not address specific details of the article but told Kelly he was willing to step aside, two people familiar with the matter said. He talked about his long career at the Justice Department and his reputation, which he did not want Trump to tarnish, the people said.
“I can go. I’m ready to go. I can resign. But I don’t want to go out with a tweet,” the deputy attorney general said, according to one person’s account.
It would be more appropriate if he went out with a “cheep, cheep” as most chickens would.
There’s a lot more in the article. Click over and read the whole thing, kids.
HYSTERICAL RAISINS 
curious er, and curious er. made me think of, “I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue”.
Rosenstein and his co-pilot Barr (who also says he can land planes) have earned their wing…well, their rightwings anyway.
Welcome back!
That’s the only kind of plane Rosenstein could land — the kind that could never fly in the first place. Although if the 45 means it represents Trump and his administration, it should be the kind of dilapidated clunker one finds rotted-out in Pacific island jungles here and there, left over from the war.
The chicken on the seal looks agitated as hell, as if Trump is about to grab it by something I’m not sure chickens even have.
I can’t see the original article because I’ve used up my quote of free stuff at the Washington Post for this month. I’ll give it a try in May. But I can’t feel sorry for Rosenstein. Surely he knew anyone who gets too close to Trump will end up plucked and roasted — wire or no wire.
Hi Infidel! How nice to see you! 😀
The chicken is the new symbol of the so-called Justice Department, because everyone at the top seems to be scared shitless of the bully in the Oval Office.
(This is whispered so only the two of us can see it, so shhhhh…) My quota at WaPo was up months ago, if not longer. However, I have been told (no idea if it’s true or not 😛 ) that you can open the article in an incognito window, you can read it in its entirety. I’m sure other news services and blogs will pick it up, and it will be available to read and pick apart soon.
Hi, Nonnie, you’ve been missed! I hope you are well, and muscled up for the coming campaign kerfuffles on top of all this.
I can’t help but cut Rod a bit of slack. He’s in a terrible situation, and the more charitable view would be that he is a better person to have in that position than another Barr clone. Sure, the plane came down hard, but passengers are living to tell the story. I want to hear his story when the dust has settled.
I don’t know, but I’ve always heard his voice in that conversation as an exasperated sarcasm: “So, what do you want me to do, wear a wire?” It will be interesting to know, one day, how it really was intended. The stony look on his face as he stood behind Trump, and the faint smile as the reporter pushed his questioning, did not strike me as supportive.
Hi Chez Moi, how nice to see you! 😀
At first, I thought RR might be a good guy who was toeing the line trying to stay in good graces with Twitler so that he could protect Mueller. Now, the phrase “Trojan horse” comes to mind. I think he has been on Twitler’s side this entire time (especially in the wake of the recent Obama bashing he did), and he stayed in order to fence Mueller in instead of allowing him free rein to do his work. He should have recused himself at the very beginning (before there was a Matthew Whitaker), because he was involved in the firing of Comey. If there is no other evidence to acquit him, I believe he is nothing more than either a coward or a willing accomplice to a thug. Then again, it could be both. He needs to be brought in front of Congress for public hearings, and he has to spell out what he did or didn’t do as far as Mueller is concerned, and then Mueller has to testify so we know if RR was telling the truth or not. We know Barr will lie, but let him lie publicly, too, so the American public can see how Mueller’s investigation was mischaracterized and, quite possible, cut short. Just my 2¢.
Well, we agree on the public hearings, because I want to hear what he has to say – and a lot of others, too. He is one of the rare critters involved in this fiasco to whom I prefer to give the benefit of the doubt for the moment, but if he can’t give a satisfactory account of himself, then off with his head.
Time to lance this hideous boil of an administration and start the process of disinfection.
We make the mistake of waiting for a knight in shining armor to come along and save us all. We have to save ourselves by getting rid of all the maggots serving in this administration and those who have infected the departments designed to protect us. We need investigations to wake up the public so they realize how dire things really are and let them know that nobody is looking out for them, so they must look out for themselves. The only way to do that is to vote in numbers so large that the Russians and the Rethuglican vote suppressors of all kinds can’t steal more elections.
I couldn’t agree more: vote, register people to vote, and make everyone around you vote on the day. We have a ton of candidates, and I don’t want to fight with any of their supporters. I’d love to see them all united in offering a new direction (how about UP?) rather than trying to weaken one another by pulling off to different sides.
There is room for all of them in a new administration, if they really want to serve the country and not themselves. Some may be weaker on certain issues, some may be stronger, but we the people have to make it clear what we expect from our representatives so they can’t wiggle out of their responsibilities.
I could not have said it better myself, so I won’t try. 😀
Glad to see you back in the fight, Dearest Nonnie. I can’t believe how stupidly naive I was about RR. I really believed he was one of the good guys. Sigh! When and with whom will the nightmare end?
My dearest Eleanor. We were all naive. Let me rephrase. We were all hopeful that there was a shred of decency left at the highest echelons of the Justice Department. We were wrong to be optimistic. The Russians must be celebrating (as well as the Rethugs), as we no longer trust anyone in the government. It’s exactly what they wanted. The only way to restore trust is, like I said to dear Chez Moi above, to vote. Once we pick a Dem nominee, no infighting, no circular firing squads. I am pretty much resigned to the fact that my favorite candidate won’t be the nominee. However, I will put that aside and vote for the person who wins the nomination, because we really have no choice at that point, not in the presidential election, but in every election down the ballot. Like the song says, you don’t always get what you want, but you get what you need.
Who is your favorite?
My favorite is actually Amy Klobuchar, but I don’t see her candidacy catching fire at the moment. As for the others, I change my mind daily as to who goes to the front of the line. The only thing that doesn’t change is that I can’t stand Bernie.
Nonnie, interesting note about Bernie. I don’t like him either, but I don’t know why which is really bothering me. I like Mayor Pete, but he’ll never win…our country is way too backwards for that. Right now my bet is on Uncle Joe to beat Trump, but he needs to pick a woman as his VP, set her up for success and then turn the reigns over to her in four years. At least that is how my fantasy works.
I can’t stand Bernie, because I’ve known Bernies in the past. He’s a loudmouth with little substance. People talk about how consistent he has been for decades in his complaints. That’s true, but he’s also consistent in getting little to nothing done about them. He complains about the government, but he never had a real job until he was 40, and then it was as mayor, a governmental job, and he never had a another real job outside of government. He is all sizzle and no steak, and I believe he and his wife are grifters. They made sure they and their friends made plenty of money from the college she ran into the ground as well as from his campaigns. If you look under the bluster, you will find a lot of funny transactions going on. And don’t even get me started on his misogyny.
I like Mayor Pete, too, but I don’t think he’s ready. He’s brilliant, but you don’t want the medical student at the top of his class doing your open heart surgery until he has a few years of practice under the belt of his scrubs (I know scrubs don’t have belts, but metaphors are not always perfect). Although he is not my top choice, I am perfectly willing to go with Uncle Joe. I would like to see him choose Stacy Abrams for VEEP. I think this country doesn’t skip along merrily when change is happening. They have to be dragged along. I honestly don’t think a woman can win this time, but a woman VEEP can normalize the thought of a woman being POTUS. You would think Nancy Pelosi being Speaker would have done that, but there are too many people in this country who are too busy or too distracted to pay attention to politics, and they really have no idea of who and what Nancy is except for what is in the headlines.
We had an inspirational and aspirational candidate here in Floriduhhhh, Andrew Gillum. I didn’t vote for him in the primary, not because I didn’t like him, but because I didn’t think he could win, and we needed to turn this state around after 8 years of felonious Rick Scott. I voted for the guy I thought had the best chance of winning. As it turned out, Gillum surprised everyone, because a lot of younger voters turned out to vote for Gillum in the primary, because he was so progressive. I voted for him happily and with great hope in the general election. Know what all that hope that so many people felt being able to vote for Gillum got us? Four years of Racist Ron Fucking DeSantis! I hate having to be pragmatic, but I have to be. The Dems’ primary focus, unfortunately, has to be on the surest bet to beat Agolf Twittler (thank you, Infidel, for that nasty little nickname for the Cheeto menace), and I believe that person is Uncle Joe.
Here, here (or is it hear, hear?). Anyway, I agree with the Uncle Joe statement and appreciate the education on Bernie…
Well, I just don’t know anymore and I have become very hard hearted about the entire body of government. I, too believed RR was an ok guy but he has proven to be yet another crook. I think our system is so broken that there is no way out and we will succumb to a fallen government. Yes, I am a pessimist. Since the redacted report came out I’ve been so depressed I can’t watch CNN anymore or anything Trump. I don’t see a viable candidate in Biden because he is not on fire and the dems just have no candidate that is strong or vile enough to compete with Trump. A dem runner needs to be on fire and can’t play nice because Trump will eat each candidate alive while his supporters cheer him on. It is like a massive hysteria that has gripped right wingers and they can’t get enough of whatever comes out of Trump’s mouth. I will vote for who ever the democrats choose but…..
Hi Yvonne, I hope you are well. Don’t be discouraged. At least, not yet. That’s what the Rethugs and the Russians want. Spit in their faces, and keep on truckin’. They want us to think the system is broken. If Twitler wins again, and the Senate remains in Rethug hands, it might become irreversibly broken, but it isn’t yet, so don’t lose hope.
Ok I will keep faith and thank you for the pep talk. I am doing ok. I am scheduled for an ablation on May 23rd. I pray it will be help me feel better.
It’s important to pick each other up when we are getting discouraged. If we fall into despair, then we lose. We have to remember the stakes and let that keep us motivated.
I hope the ablation procedure is successful. Keep the Raisinettes posted. We will all send you positive energy. ❤
Thank you, Noonie, I will keep you posted. I had a CT scan with contrast dye this past Wednesday. I had to prep for it with Prednisone and Benadryl for possible side effects. The meds made me so weak and jittery with insomnia. The effects are beginning to slowly wear off. I appreciate your words very much.
Get some good rest before the procedure and let us know when it is done and you are on the way to feeling better. ❤