Hypocrisy is not new in politics; , it has just gotten worse

Rep. Devin Nunes, Donald Trump's GOP House member errand boy, was at it again. After having to recuse himself from the Russian investigation because of flagrant partisanship,  in a prior stunt. Devin Nunes, chair of the House Intelligence Committee,  wants to release his "memo" on alleged misdeeds by the FBI.  The Trump administration's own Justice Department says it contains classified information and  release would be "extraordinarily  reckless ", harmful to US security.  Nunes is on a thinly disguised  campaign to try to obstruct the Mueller investigation by damaging the FBI's reputation and to give a reason to fire Deputy  AG Rod Rosenstein who is  supervising the Mueller probe. The reason the Justice Department gave : the Nunes memo includes  information into FBI secret methods to gather information. No wonder Russian bots are cheerleading for the release of this memo. Russia could  learn much helpful to their own attempts to subvert US democracy and learning more about sources and methods used by US security services.  The FBI believes also it is misleading. and inaccurate.  https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/01/31/fbi-grave-concerns-expected-release-nunes-memo/1083218001/

Of course, after exhaustive investigations led by a GOP Congress into Hillary Clinton's e mails that allegedly contained classified information, those investigations  went nowhere because her intent to include them was not proven. Now  Nunes intentionally wants to release classified information harmful to the US.     Is it  OK if the GOP intentionally does release information that hurts US security  but it is  not OK if Clinton unintentionally did it  and with no damage to US security?

It is just boys being boys and locker room talk if the GOP 's flag bearer, the President of the US.  admits to sexual assault on starlets and pays off porn stars for his encounters, but it is impeachment worthy when Bill Clinton "did not have sex with that women".  Give Trump a "mulligan", White  Evangelical religious leader  's exhort while some of  their believers believe Trump   "was sent by God".  Give me a break.  How many of the GOP would like their kids to grow up and be like Donald Trump?

I yearn for those simpler  days when President Jimmy Carter admitted he had "lust in in heart".  But of course, he, a devout Christian,  came in for ridicule by his political critics  as a hypocrite.   How far  down  the toilet has the country gone?

https://www.vox.com/identities/2018/1/23/16924546/evangelical-tony-perkins-trump-stormy-daniels-affair-mulligan

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/01/27/millions-of-americans-believe-god-made-trump-president-216537

http://www.businessinsider.com/release-the-memo-campaign-russia-linked-twitter-accounts-2018-1

https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2017-04-06/house-intel-chairman-devin-nunes-recuses-self-from-russia-investigation

https://www.thedailybeast.com/doj-warns-that-releasethememo-would-be-extraordinarily-reckless

Smoke and fire in the 2016 presidential race. Hillary's mostly smoke; Trump's smoke has some fire

The stench of smoke has settled over this race to the White House.  Whether it means there is fire that is causing it is a matter of perception, the public’s definition of fire,  and finding evidence of a connection that indeed influences action that changes policy.

The low approval ratings reflected in polls of both major candidates are evidence that voters are not deaf and blind.  Even polls show that what is motivating voters to support one or the other is revulsion

 and dislike of  the opposing party candidate.  Clouds of smoke that hang over the race is as good as fire fueling voter preferences.  Recent news and investigative reporting have only added to the stink  of the smoke. Perception is more important than reality as a factor that influences public opinion. Smoke counts. Less important in the public’s eye is whether there is fire there.

 Thanks to  Colorado pollster and astute political observer Floyd Ciruli who recently concluded that Colorado is no longer in the toss up category as it is turning ever darker shades of bue in the electoral college map.  He drew heavily on a recent Quinnipiac  poll that partisan dislike of the opposition candidate is what is motivating voter preferences, not the positive love a candidate. The search for viable alternatives as a way out is anemic. So far the Libertarian Party has not polled higher than around 8% on the average and the Green Party is far behind as a third party choice.

 While a strong case can be made that taken all together, Benghazi, Hillary Clinton’s private email server, and the appearance of pay to play in the Clinton relationship to their family foundation makes it appear that Clinton is greedy and self promoting , truth  stretching, defensive  tail covering. However none  of those  issues have shown that policy resulted that rise to  the fire of illegal activity or influenced policy.. She appeared after innumerable Congressional hearings to be at arms length  with policies that resulted in the death of an ambassador in Benghazi.  The FBI investigation could not prove that she intentionally sent emails that had classified information. So far, even the Associated Press in their excellent reporting could not find that there was evidence national policy  changes resulted from giving access to non governmental connected foreign and domestic Foundation donors.. Nonetheless, the smell lingers.  The only way out of the stink is to close down the Foundation now and turn over its resources and administration of humanitarian aid to the Bill  Gates Foundation that has the capacity and similar philosophy to carry on.  It is not a matter of admitting wrong doing to shutter the Foundation;  it the most effective way  to remove the perception of wrong doing.

However, the New York Times digging around found that Donald Trump’s pronouncement  on foreign affairs issues show a connection to his business dealings.  He owes the Bank of China and Goldman Sachs in his finance dealings and his goals and business dealings with Russia are no secret now.  Trump’s  anti Southeast (TPP) trade agreement) positions may be a problem, too.  

Opposing the TPP may be a lure  for the Midwest belt  voters lying in rust with job killing globalization, but the TPP was also promoted to strengthen allies in Southeast Asia against Chines expansionism in the region.  His bromance of mutual flattery and echoing Russia’s President Putin’s  declaring NATO was obsolete, Russia did not grab eastern Ukraine  or that his reliance on debts to Wall street is indeed has a  suspicious connection to this business dealings. In these cases, there is fire of policy positions within the fog of smoke.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/26/politics/trump-nafta-tpp/index.html

http://time.com/4433880/donald-trump-ties-to-russia/

http://fciruli.blogspot.com/2016/08/colorado-now-considered-part-of.html

https://www.qu.edu/news-and-events/quinnipiac-university-poll/2016-presidential-swing-state-polls/release-detail?ReleaseID=2373