Meanwhile, back at the DNC…

With the world mesmerized by the insane ravings of John Brennan, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency under Barack Obama, our inner heartstrings are tugged with compassion with the obvious suffering of another human being.

In the case of Brennan, one’s mind turns not to Hamlet (“O, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown!”) but rather “Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad.” There may be a dollop of animal cunning behind Brennan’s humiliating anti-Trump outbursts. He may be hoping against hope that his own role in the effort to delegitimize and reverse the results of a free, open, and democratic presidential election will be swept under the rug and he will emerge unscathed. I’d say the odds were about 50-50.

But the strain has been terrific, and there is no doubt that the man is barking. So he deserves our compassion. He also deserves our vigilance. Give him a sweet and wipe his brow as you walk by, but make sure that the straps on the straight jacket are secure.

It was President Trump’s summit meeting and subsequent press conference with President Putin in Helsinki that sent poor John Brennan and his faithful anti-Trump cultists into orbit. I don’t think we’ve seen anything quite like it since the melee at Charlottesville, when Trump had the temerity to suggest that there was plenty of blame on both sides of the protest.

That was supposed to be a “moral disgrace” just as his efforts to patch things up with Russia was supposed to be “treasonous.”





You may think, as I do, that Trump is doing the right thing by reaching out a hand to Vladimir Putin, odious though he is. Or you might believe, as many thoughtful people do, that Putin is just too odious to do business with. People can disagree about that, though I would note that I cannot see that Putin is any more odious than Joseph Stalin, with whom FDR consorted, or his successors, which every US President since have had to deal with. Mao Tse-Tung was one of the greatest monsters in history. That didn’t stop Richard Nixon from making overtures to him. Was that “treasonous”?

But I digress. The happy news I want to bring you now is that the Democratic Party has, at last, come up with an official slogan for the mid-term election.

Yes, that’s right. After the burning of much midnight non-fossil fuel, the DNC has hit upon a sure winner. The considered and rejected “Better Deal.” That one, Politico reports, “failed to break through with voters” and besides, it has has been “openly mocked by some Democratic lawmakers.”

They know in their heart of hearts that what they have on offer—higher taxes, lax border enforcement, more business-killing regulation, and more governmental bureaucracy—they know that they cannot, practiced liars though they be, tout that with as straight face as a “better deal.”

So what’s the alternative? Wait for it. Drum roll please! It’s “For the People.”

Yep, the party that has spent a decade and more coddling Washington elites and ignoring the heartland as a bastion of “irredeemable deplorables,” the party that has destroyed black inner cities across the country by a making their inhabitants wards of the state: here they are with “for the people.” “House Democrats,” Politico says, “plan to begin working ‘For the People’ into their statements and press conferences.”

Please stop giggling.

Who knew that “for” could be a transitive verb? Ronald Reagan famously quipped that the nine scariest words in the English language were “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” When the Dems (and, let’s be fair, when many Republicans) talk about doing things “for the people”, they really mean doing things to them.

The great hurdle that the Democrats face in November is the astonishing success of Trump’s initiatives. On one front after the next, he has moved with unprecedented dispatch to keep the promises he made during his campaign. Some are symbolic, like his moving the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. Some are systemic, like his scores of judicial appointments. Some are flashy, like his tax cuts, his roll-back of burdensome regulation, his increased military spending, and his bold, globe-trotting diplomacy. The proof of his success, like the proof in the pudding, is in the tasting: unemployment at its lowest in a generation; black unemployment the lowest on record; consumer confidence soaring; ditto the stock market; and this just in, second quarter growth is estimated to be well in excess of 4 percent.

Against that, what do the Democrats have? The senile maunderings of Nancy Pelosi. Kathy Griffin. John Brennan. Morning Joe. Chuck Schumer. A silly socialist in New York.

It almost makes me feel sorry for them. I stress the adverb.