The Weekly Sift

For a day there, it looked like impeachment would start sooner rather than later: Buzzfeed reported that Trump had directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress, which is pretty close to what Nixon was impeached for. Then the Special Counsel’s Office put out a cryptic denial, leaving everybody uncertain about what it all meant. Was the Buzzfeed report mostly true, but with some minor inaccuracies? Was it a complete hoax? Who could say?

Maximal uncertainty was probably what the SCO was shooting for, and they achieved it. I’ll try to sort out the divergent tea-leaf readings in the featured post, “The Scoop That Wasn’t”. I’ll try to get that out by 10:30 EST, but if it slips it will probably slip all the way to noon.

In the weekly summary, there’s shutdown news, but nothing that heralds a solution. Brexit continues to flounder; as I said a few weeks ago, all possible conclusions seem unlikely. (I’m reminded of a pregame show where a commentator joked, “I don’t think either of these teams can win this game.”) I can’t help commenting on the MAGA-hat-wearing teens who harassed the Native American elder on the Capitol Mall. An inspector general says the GSA screwed up when it overlooked the constitutional issues in Trump’s ownership of the Trump International Hotel. And that Gillette ad. And I’m in the deep-freeze here in New England, so I’ll be looking for a closing that makes winter seem funny. That’s probably out by 1.