(F)lightning Rod

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.”

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Looking for lies in the White House is like looking for a needle in a needlestack

From THE HILL:

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Thursday that President Trump should use lie-detector tests to find out which senior administration official authored an anonymous op-ed in The New York Times this week blasting the president.

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Staff Infection

Well, kids, I am sure that you’ve heard about the New York Times op-ed written by someone only identified as a “senior official in the Trump administration.” It’s titled:

I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration

I work for the president but like-minded colleagues and I have vowed to thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.

Who can it be? A man, a woman, one person, more than one? A real “resister” or someone who thinks this might help the Rethugs in the midterm elections? Damned if I know!  But it’s so much fun trying to guess.

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“All The Views Are Fit to Print”

From MEDIA MATTERS:

The New York Times hired Wall Street Journal deputy editor Bret Stephens as its newest opinion columnist, claiming he “will bring a new perspective to bear on the news.” Stephens has a long history of promoting misinformation, including on climate science, foreign policy, and sexual assault.

Fraud Chicken

From THE BRAD BLOG:

Unreleased raw footage reviewed by AG Jerry Brown’s investigation was obtained from Rightwing activists O’Keefe and Giles in exchange for immunity from prosecution

Contradicting MSM coverage,  O’Keefe ‘never claimed he was a pimp,’ ‘did not act as a journalist’…

Echoing the recent report of the Kings County, NY, District Attorney who completed a five-month probe finding “no criminality” seen in video tapes secretly taken of low-level ACORN and ACORN Housing workers last year in New York, California’s Attorney General has now reached a similar conclusion regarding videos recorded in three different cities in the Golden State last Summer, according to a report released today which finds the workers “committed no violation of criminal law.”

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The No Talk Express

(CNN) — Meghan McCain has drawn headlines for her unfiltered take on the presidential campaign, but there’s one topic the outspoken daughter of last year’s Republican presidential nominee won’t touch: her father’s running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

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DiFi: “You don’t write, you don’t call…”

From The Washington Post:

President-elect Barack Obama said yesterday that he has selected a “top-notch intelligence team” that would provide the “unvarnished” information his administration needs, rather than “what they think the president wants to hear.”

…snip…

On Capitol Hill, Democrats on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence were still stewing over Obama not consulting them on the choice before it was leaked Monday and continued to question Panetta’s intelligence experience. Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. acknowledged that the transition team had made a “mistake” in not consulting or even notifying congressional leaders, and Obama telephoned committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and her predecessor, Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), yesterday to apologize.

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