You Don't Fit the Suit

Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez (below) said he was going to do something about Trump when he took over his party's chairmanship, and today he filed a suit against the Trump campaign, the Russian government, Wikileaks, and Paul Manafort for hacking the DNC's e-mail server and releasing those unflattering e-mails about Hillary Clinton that Perez says tipped the scales for Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

Wait a minute - I thought he said he was going to do something about Trump.

So let me see if I have this straight.  The Democrats are suing numerous entities on charges of a conspiracy that Robert Mueller has not yet proven existed, with little thought toward coming up with a message that will resonate with voters in this year's midterm elections, and they're going to spend exorbitant amounts of money - even as the national committee struggles to keep the party from going bankrupt - on this suit instead of on support for Democratic candidates and for get-out-the-vote operations in November . . . and they're doing it to send a message to the Russians and warn them not to tamper with the midterms (a problem state election boards should be doing something about) and also to fire up a Democratic base to vote for candidates in the general election who more often than not will be candidates favored by the Clintons while the party tries to stop progressives in state and local primaries - even, I believe, in states and districts where progressives can actually win - and continues purging progressives from positions of power.  

Does this all make sense to you?  Because it sure doesn't make sense to me.

Even more nonsensical is how the DNC has a lot of damn gall to sue anyone for rigging the system when the DNC itself was so good at rigging the 2016 primaries and caucuses to prevent Martin O'Malley from gaining any traction and to prevent Bernie Sanders from getting anything with the traction he actually gained.  One progressive by the name of Amir Amini summed up this hypocrisy on Twitter quite nicely: "So the DNC is suing a foreign country for being unfair to the Hillary Clinton campaign in an election in which the DNC was caught undermining democracy itself, violating its own rules and colluding with the [Clinton] campaign and the [mainstream media] to stop Bernie."

And Martin.

Next time the DNC wants to rig a primary process and collude with the press and a corporate presidential campaign to put the least winnable presidential candidate forward in the general election, maybe they should consider getting a better firewall for their server.   

Also, DNC factotums should think twice before firing off any e-mails that may make someone like Hillary "look bad."

But then, Hillary didn't need any help with that.

Many progressives seem to agree that this suit is a way for the Democratic establishment, which backed Hillary Clinton to the hilt, to get back at those who stood between Hillary and the White House while continuing to refuse to acknowledge that it was a mistake to nominate her for President in the first place.  In other words, they're trying to . . . exact revenge?  Oh no, you don't, DNC!  After you screwed my candidate, you don't get to avenge being screwed yourself!  You don't have to leggo my Eggo, but keep your filthy hands off my Pop-Tarts! ;-)    

Your Serve

Leaked information from Clinton campaign keeps pouring in. The leaks, all from the e-mail account of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and supposedly provided to WikiLeaks by the Russians, cover everything from the denigration of Catholics to the underhanded tactics against Bernie Sanders - nothing about Martin O'Malley? nah, even Hillary's campaign staffers didn't know who he is - but the most explosive leak may have been the report that a deputy secretary at the State Department, Undersecretary of State Patrick Kennedy (not the former Rhode island congressman of the Kennedy family), may have tried to get the FBI to de-classify the contents of one e-mail from Hillary's own private server. 

In exchange, the State Department said that it would help the FBI get agents assigned to dangerous areas overseas.  (Wait - the FBI has agents assigned overseas?)  One individual said there was pressure from another FBI official regarding the request.  

The FBI is denying that there was a quid pro quo - Latin for "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" - involved, but it doesn't look good for Hillary.  Her camp says that the e-mails that have been released have neither been authenticated nor disproved.  Well, her staffers should either authenticate them or disprove them, and then they should let the chips fall where they may.

They may not have to do any of that, because Donald Trump is shooting himself in the foot.  He's going around mocking the sexual harassment charges against him, and he's also saying that the voting system in These States is rigged.  His charge of voter fraud make him look so ridiculous, petulant, and unpresidential that he even has fellow Republicans - known for voter-fraud paranoia of their own - denying the system is rigged.  Trump even said the Republican nomination process was rigged.  Yeah, Donald?  Well, I guess that explains why you're the Republican presidential nominee!

Then again, there may be a method to Donald's madness.  He said the GOP nomination process was rigged and thus encouraged primary voters to show up and secure his nomination.  He may be trying the same strategy to overtake Hillary in the general election, though he fails to understand that the general election campaign is completely different from the nomination campaign.    

I still think he has a chance, though, if only because the polls showing Hillary ahead don't take into account any of the voters who registered to vote for Trump in the primaries and plan to vote for him in November - but did not vote in 2012.  Presidential election polls are based on registered voters from the previous election.  I am not saying that Trump will win.  I only note that he can.   

As for Hillary's e-mails . . . I expect another leak, a couple of leaked e-mails in which Hillary staffers ask about Martin O'Malley, "Wasn't he the company clerk on 'M*A*S*H'?"  "Wasn't he the eighth President of the United States?" :-p