A Level-Headed Call For Impeachment

If you’ve not seen the seven-minute Ben Wittes “impeachment” clip, watch it now.  Far from shrill, its power derives from its thoughtfulness.

If you don’t know just how evil Trump’s “great public servant” Sheriff Arpaio is — I didn’t — read it here.  (“The word ‘racist’ isn’t enough. The word ‘abusive’ isn’t enough. Joe Arpaio’s actions over the course of his time in office were monstrous.”)* Oh, and look — that pardon might conceivably not stand, after all.

Arpaio.  Putin.  Bannon.  Sater (stabbed a guy in the face and neck with a broken margarita glass). Erdogan.  Tough guys Trump likes.  Carl Icahn.

Last summer, I told you my Carl Icahn story, a tale of hard-heartedness, ego, and suicide.  But to Trump, Icahn — like Roy Cohn — has been a role model. Elect him, Trump said, and he’d drain the swamp.  No Goldman Sachs guys to protect the carried-interest loophole that he promised to repeal (oops — guess what) . . . no, he would appoint amazing deal makers like Carl Icahn.  According to this piece in the New Yorker that you may have heard about — “Carl Icahn’s Failed Raid On Washington” — it didn’t work out so well.

Icahn is worth more than the Trump family and all the members of the Cabinet combined—and, with no constraint on his license to counsel the President on regulations that might help his businesses, he was poised to become much richer. Robert Weissman, who runs the watchdog group Public Citizen, told me, “This kind of self-enrichment and influence over decision-making by an individual mogul who is simultaneously inside and outside the Administration is unprecedented. In terms of corruption, there’s nothing like it. Maybe ever.” In conversations with me, financiers who have worked with Icahn described his appointment as a kind of corporate raid on Washington. One said, “It’s the cheapest takeover Carl’s ever done.”

Have a great long weekend!