Devin Loves Donald

Like this, but worse

It's kinda like "Joanie Loves Chachi," but a lot worse.  "Devin Loves Donald" is an important tragi-comic tale about the behavior of scared, guilty people.  The story began ten months ago, but in the whirlwind of the Trump Freak Show, you've probably forgotten most of it.

In April of last year, U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Cal), Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election and Russia's links to Trump, recused himself (temporarily) from that committee.  The House Ethics Committee then announced an investigation into Nunes himself.  Why?

A month earlier Nunes had hastily called a press conference to announce he'd seen classified reports showing some of Trump's people had been under surveillance by the DOJ/FBI for their Russian contacts/activities.  His sudden disclosure of classified information was unauthorized and in violation of House rules.

It came out soon enough that Nunes got his info from staffers inside the White House -- Nunes went to the White House to view the classified docs, then told Trump and went public with it immediately, without discussion with or clearance from his own committee, let alone the FBI or DOJ.  Not cool, Devin.

"Devin!  Sit!  Stay!  Roll over!  Sniff my ass!  Good boy!"

Nunes then was obviously compromised as Chair of the Intel Committee -- outed as nothing more than Trump's slobbering, faithful pet dog.  So, with his prejudice hanging out in the breeze, he recused himself as Chairman, but he needed to do more than that.  At a minimum, he should have been -- hello, Paul Ryan? -- totally removed from the Intel Committee.  Resigning from Congress would have been better still.

Instead, he "recused" while the Ethics Committee got stonewalled.  They were never able to obtain a copy of the classified info in question, and in December they dropped their investigation into Nunes' conduct, citing unnamed "experts" who declared that what Nunes publicly shared was probably not classified after all.  Nunes pronounced himself "completely cleared" (that's not what they said, Devin) and elbowed his way back into chairing the Intel Committee.  The Republican majority on the Committee did not object.

Now you're almost up to date.  Nunes then put together a classified memo summarizing the classified reports he'd seen at the White House.  His memo reportedly characterizes these reports as surveillance abuses conducted by Obama loyalists at the DOJ.  (Of course!  Obama did it!)

Gimme a break!  The Nunes memo is just a pathetic, partisan smear job, a shameless attack on the FBI, the DOJ and the entire Russian probe.

Nevertheless, Nunes' Intel Committee voted to release the memo to the public, despite its classified status, and over the strong objections of everyone except themselves.  Naturally, they voted against releasing a memo written by the Democrats on the committee which refutes Nunes' pandering propaganda.

In the next five days, Trump will make the final decision about releasing this BS to the public.  Odds are he will.

Trump is clearly feeling the heat from Robert Mueller's kitchen.  He and his panicked GOP toadies are like a defeated army trying to destroy everything of value as they retreat.  

In March 1945, in his final desperation, Adolf Hitler issued his "Nero Decree," ordering the destruction of all German infrastructure to prevent its use by the advancing Allies.  The order was deliberately disobeyed by Minister of Armaments Albert Speer, who was appalled by the idea.  He stalled Hitler with contrived excuses while he convinced Nazi generals to ignore the order.

Are there any Republicans in today's American Congress with the backbone of a few vanquished Nazis?