"When Trump says repeatedly that he fired the F.B.I. director James Comey because of the Russia investigation, Barr spins it as, 'Unfortunately, President Trump exacerbated things himself with his clumsy miscues, notably making imprecise comments in an interview with NBC News’s Lester Holt and joking around with the Russian foreign minister and ambassador the day after firing Comey.' The just-joking defense is a favorite for Barr, as it is for the former president. In a strikingly humorless book, there is one 'funny' line from Trump: '"Do you know what the secret is of a really good tweet?" he asked, looking at each of us one by one. We all looked blank. "Just the right amount of crazy," he said.'"
Writes Jeffrey Toobin in the NYT, reviewing William Barr's book, "One Damn Thing After Another."
(Yes, Jeffrey Toobin, speaking of "a naughty but good-hearted adolescent.")
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40 comments:
Is Toobin still at CNN? This must be the hard news they’ve been promising…
I swear leftie media has become bored with effective propaganda and is now just seeing how crazy they can get away with…
So far it’s impressive…
We live in a time when one wrong word can get someone canceled forever and yet Jeffrey Toobin is still taken seriously. Could there be any clearer sign of the utter corruption of our public life?
Joking depends on truth if it's any good. Barr's vocabulary is sold by the yard and cut to fit in the bureaucracy, not ever depending on truth, a nice contrast to Trump.
Haven’t seen Barr once on TV pimping his book. Sad!
#13 on AMZN. Zero reviews.
Showing his deep state loyalty and soiling his reputation big time.
Rh: awesome comment.
So, just to be clear;
It's OKAY to masturbate during office meetings, IF you spout the party line?
asking for a friend
Couldn't get in to the site to read the wise man's work. Golly gosh darn it cross my heart.
Are all the reviews going to be "Why doesn't he see that Trump is worse than Hitler?"
Toobin was certainly naughty, but "goodhearted"? Check out his Wikipedia page. He's a shit.
"Just the right amount of crazy."
Trump, on the Crazy-Hot matrix?
Is Toobin still at CNN? This must be the hard news they’ve been promising…
I see what you did there....
Seriously, why rely on Toobin or anyone in the MSM for a take on Barr's book? They are going to home in on, and take out of context, anything that makes Trump look bad, and ignore anything positive. It's what they do.
Now do John Bolton's remarks.
"Just the right amount of crazy," he said.'"
Christoper Walken for president with Willem Dafoe as VP.
Do the empty husks we now have as our federal executives also count as crazy?
"the 'just joking' defense". IOW, the truth, for the minority of humanity with a working sense of humor. A lot of Trump's most awful terrifying quotes were obviously jokes.
Barr's quote captures the problem that is Trump. He has irresistible emotional/aesthetic impulses that, though entertaining, interfere with the critically important role of the President as the symbol, personification and custodian of our nation's power and traditions.
An effective President will understand that he has limited latitude to drop the symbolic mask and indulge the playfulness that gives each of us whatever uniqueness we possess. Trump doesn't get it. He's not the only one.
gilbar said...So, just to be clear;
It's OKAY to masturbate during office meetings, IF you spout the party line?
asking for a friend
We have not yet found the limits of what you can do so long as you are useful to the cause. It is neither the words nor the deeds, but the loss of usefulness that dooms people.
Barr was brought in to try to get the DOJ/FBI back to some kind of non-partisan professionalism. He failed. He often purposely chose not to reform. It is unfortunate.
'"Do you know what the secret is of a really good tweet?" he asked, looking at each of us one by one. We all looked blank. "Just the right amount of crazy," he said.'"
Barr needs to be careful. That quote suggests Trump knew exactly what he was doing and that his actions were rational and purposeful.
""When Trump says repeatedly that he fired the F.B.I. director James Comey because of the Russia investigation, Barr spins it as…"
As it turned out, firing Comey because of the Russia "investigation" was entirely justified.
Barr's quote captures the problem that is Trump. He has irresistible emotional/aesthetic impulses that, though entertaining, interfere with the critically important role of the President as the symbol, personification and custodian of our nation's power and traditions.
Fortunately, Biden does so perfectly. Shitting in his pants, for example, illustrates the competence of most of our ruling class.
Adolescent politically maybe. But not policy wise. Give me the adolescent over the cabbage head sock puppetry currently burning everything down.
A difference I see between Trump and his - let's be straightforward about it - enemies is that when they play clown-nose-on, clown-nose-off, they're 100% serious the whole time and only claiming that they were joking when they realize some of their serious statements don't play as well as they thought they would... whereas Trump says, "Here's my clown nose - putting it on now, [says something outrageous]! Taking it off now."
It takes a remarkable degree of social tone-deafness not to realize when Trump is being facetious - so remarkable that I have a hard time believing it's not willful. (I'm giving the other side the benefit of the doubt here - see?)
I am not saying Trump never says anything problematic or stupid. But for those of us who can (or choose to) read social cues, it's obvious when he's serious and when he's joking. He doesn't require Psakiesque "interpretation" the way Biden does.
All this said, I really wish he'd just embrace being a kingmaker. Time and tide wait for no man and he's getting up there. And, even though HE seems to relish the fight, I'm... tired.
Tobin? Is this "watch me wackoff Tobin"? or another one. Anyway, what is the point of reading some Trump haters review of Barr's book. He wants more trump hate. He wants Barr to bash Trump on every page, and is upset that he doesn't.
Trump's real problem is he never understood the importance of loyalty. He kept picking supposedly "high quality" people for his administration, who stabbed him in the back the first chance they got. He would've been better off with a mediocre but loyal AG. Barr refused to help him stay in power after November 2020, and refused to go after Antifa/BLM during the riots in 2020. He refused to leak the Hunter Biden probe and kept Trump from declassifying information related to Russiagate. He was just another bush deep state actor who's first loyalty was to the Establishment, not Trump.
One wonders what Toobin was doing when he wrote that.
My mentor taught me that the art of good lawyering is to let your client have things your way. Barr, it appears from his book, preferred unlawyerly arrogance.
He was just another bush deep state actor who's first loyalty was to the Establishment, not Trump.
I agree that this describes Barr accurately. Trump's problem was that he was not a member of the club. The DC elites all go to the same cocktail parties and dinners at each others' homes. They all marry each other or sleep with each other. I remember one famous TV woman host who got crab lice from screwing John Lindsey. Trump was an outsider who believed all those people he chose were patriots. They weren't and stabbed him in the back.
That's one reason that I favor DeSantis. He has a team in Florida that he can use to recruit and vet those he doesn't know. Reagan did the same thing.
I expected the book to be more of a hit job on Trump.
Sounds like from the review, it’s more about shoring up Barr’s reputation as the adult in the room.
A paternal voice would tell Jeff Toobin that too much spanking the monkey would grow hair on your palms.
Barr had a career as General Counsel for major corporations on the East Coast. Having watched--and worked for a General Counsel of a Fortune 50 company (who managed to keep the post for 25 years--a very long tenure for a corporate general counsel) you can't do that without a certain gravitas and a whole lot of political smarts. That doesn't mean that the General Counsel's pronunciamientos are always right.
I do agree with Michael K's comment re DeSantis and Reagan. Reagan rose to prominence and the California governorship with the help of a "kitchen cabinet" of major businessmen in Los Angeles. A team like that either knows, or knows people who know, how to vet people for an administration. And the fact that Florida and California are (or in California's case were) far from Washington DC may prevent the appointment of too many dyed in the swamp critters to the new administration. You break the inbred Harvard Yale Ivy League bubble in your appointments.
I refuse to read anything written by Toobin. I don’t care what he thinks or says.
Skeptical Voter said...
"the fact that Florida and California are (or in California's case were) far from Washington DC may prevent the appointment of too many dyed in the swamp critters to the new administration. You break the inbred Harvard Yale Ivy League bubble in your appointments."
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From your keyboard to God's ear, so to speak.
Some of our greatest juvenile delinquents have been presidents. Anywho, religion for those capable of self-moderation, and competing interests to mitigate progress of others running amuck. Generally, diversity of individuals, minority of one. #HateLovesAbortion
Yeah, DeSantis, product of Yale College and Harvard Law School, will break the Ivy League bubble.
Never a fan of Toobin. He first became famous by betraying his boss, Lawrence Welsh, and colleagues on Iran-Contra team. Still remember him confidently predicting on CNN that the quick, embargoed OJ verdict had to mean announcement of conviction coming. (Sorry) But the review shows why he held on after his zoom scandal (sorry again). He analyzes and writes brilliantly.
Barr is the quintessential RINO Deep Stater.
All anyone needs to know about him is his assurances that there was no election fraud in the face of both his inability to prove the negative and the mounting evidence of fraud and illegality in the election.
Best for any lawyer, particularly the chief prosecutor in the land, to wait until the evidence is in. Trump's biggest failing was his poor choices of AGs.
Blogger Readering said...
Yeah, DeSantis, product of Yale College and Harvard Law School, will break the Ivy League bubble.
I think the reference was to Supreme Court justices but you go ahead with your two minute hate on DeSantis.
That's one reason that I favor DeSantis. He has a team in Florida that he can use to recruit and vet those he doesn't know. Reagan did the same thing.
That's some good news.
The likes of William Shockley are tolerable notwithstanding any weirdness because he won a Nobel Prize in physics. Jeffrey Toobin has no such countervailing qualification and should be ignored in polite company. Or any company. He's a perv with utter lack of discretion.
Bill Barr? Lon Horiuchi’s protector. F him.
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