The Aristocrats!

We all knew the punchline to Cohen's testimony: both sides would see what they wanted to see.  The GOP saw Cohen as a liar who couldn't be trusted.  Cohen is a liar, he has lied.  (So did Elliott Abrams, but questioning his integrity is beyond the Pale.) Of course, this time he brought some receipts.

As with all thing Trump, we got a series of what should be explosive, career ending allegation with enough proof to warrant impeachment hearings. And yet, there was a broad sense of...yeah, we knew that.  Honestly, if/when the pee tape comes out, we will all be...yeah, we know that, while Republicans will point out that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez urinates and who's the real hypocrite here.

Speaking of AOC...man, she gets more impressive the more you see of her.  Not as a policy wonk, necessarily, but she does politics really, really well.  Her social media skills are as impressive as anyone in Congress, but what she did yesterday was brilliant.  She's been scolded as a lightweight, so she comes in, focuses her questions for Cohen on further avenues of investigation, gets him to name names, gets him to admit why we need to subpoena his tax returns, doesn't make a bloviating speech and finishes before her time expires.  She seemed the only one who realized no one really gives a crap about those speeches unless they are dumpster fires.

Speaking of which, the GOP's constant parade of "but I have a black friend" was...I mean, what the living hell. If there is a greater expression of why our conversations about race and racism founder before they even begin, it's this idea that if I'm nice to a person of color that means I can't be racist.  Racism isn't about how you treat individuals, it's about how you treat a group. It's about how you see individuals you don't personally know as being representative of their group.  It's about power. 

Cohen is back testifying behind closed doors to the House Intelligence Committee.  The legacy of this hearing is tough to gauge.  Unlike John Dean, Cohen didn't add substantial knew evidence, though there was just enough.  Cohen reputedly has tapes of conversations with Trump, but those weren't disclosed.  Basically, he just added more bricks to the edifice of Trump's Tower of Corruption. 

It is amazing that Republicans continue to defend this man, to vote for his stupid border "emergency" and sing his praises.  They are either colossally stupid or so terrified of the MAGAT crowed that they dare not let a sliver of daylight emerge between themselves and Orange Julius Ceasar.

Still, these hearings and every utterance issued on his behalf needs to be archived and ready for when they will inevitably say that Trump was "not a true conservative."  Because it seems in 2019 that the only thing "conservatism" stands for is doing things the opposite of anyone to the left of John Kasich.