Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Bad news for Ron DeSantis is great news for America.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

You cannot shame the shameless.

This fight is for everything.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

White supremacy is terrorism.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Republicans don’t trust women.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

You are here: Home / Politics / America / That Op-Ed, Continued

That Op-Ed, Continued

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While I take a measure of relief that we now appear to be closer to the beginning of the end than to the end of the beginning, I have some big concerns about that New York Times op-ed by “a senior administration official.”

My concerns are very much like David Frum’s.

Speak in your own name. Resign in a way that will count. Present the evidence that will justify an invocation of the 25th Amendment, or an impeachment, or at the very least, the first necessary step toward either outcome, a Democratic Congress after the November elections.

Clearly this is related to yesterday’s revelations from Bob Woodward’s book. The author of the op-ed may even have contributed to Woodward.

But the author is trying to preserve his/her reputation: I am being a good Republican, helping to execute good Republican policies. I am keeping the country safe from a dangerous president.

That’s a lot of responsibility to take on. The president is elected; the author has been appointed by that president and tells us that he is undermining that president. In the telling, the president is further undermined.

What did the author expect to be the next step? Donald Trump is reported to have freaked out over the Woodward revelations and have started searching for the leakers. This will turbocharge that search. James Jesus Angleton became convinced that there was a Russian mole in the CIA and practically destroyed the agency. Can the author of the op-ed protect us from a storm a couple of categories stronger?

There are a limited number of senior administration officials. We are likely to learn who wrote the op-ed much more quickly than we learned that Deep Throat was Mark Felt. How we will learn is hard to predict.

 

Reader Interactions

217Comments

  1. 1.

    TenguPhule

    What did the author expect to be the next step?

    A lifetime appointment of the Sunday Talkshows and wingnut welfare forever from a grateful billionaire class.

  2. 2.

    Cheryl Rofer

    American historian. I’ve been thinking the op-ed sounds like a coup communique too.

  3. 3.

    TenguPhule

    Nuck Fazis!
    @Johngcole
    so I see while I was taking Lily to chemo Republicans have redefined patriotism as “working publicly for the crazy guy but privately trying to limit his crazy to only mostly dangerous.”

    There’s not a fucking spine in the entire GOP.

  5. 5.

    joel hanes

    I’m with Susan Simpson.

    The author explicitly places loyalty to the Republican Party and its policy goals ahead of loyalty to the nation or to the Constitutional rule of law.

    The author expects to be lauded as a patriot.
    The author is beneath contempt.

  7. 7.

    Roger Moore

    I’m a bit surprised at how quickly the popular consensus has settled on this person being a coward who should actually do something to get Trump out of office if they think he’s that bad. It’s not because I disagree with that point, but that it’s surprising the consensus could crystallize on that point quite so quickly.

  8. 8.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Several days ago a senior official in the Trump administration used an intermediary to contact New York Times op-ed page editor Jim Dao.
    Through the go-between, the senior official expressed interest in writing an explosive piece for the paper, describing a “resistance” to President Trump within the government that works overtime to protect the United States from the president’s worst impulses.

    The result, published on the New York Times’ website on Wednesday, prompted speculation all across Washington about who the official is.

    Dao, of course, isn’t saying. In a telephone interview, he was careful not to share any identifying details, even the person’s gender.

    The article says that Dao claims they didn’t edit the senior official’s writing style.

  9. 9.

    cain

    The silence from the Republicans is inexplicable. I have no idea why they are silent. When will they speak up? When the first nuke hits a country and war breaks out? Will their donor class be happy with all that is wrought? Fucking assholes. In any case, I think we need to really make sure this Kavanaugh thing goes down in flames using this op-ed as the reasoning.

    I do find the timing kind of strange. If they are good little Repubicans, wouldn’t they want to wait until SCOTUS judge gets confirmed and not create a stir in the middle of the confirmation hearings?

  11. 11.

    MomSense

    Invoking the 25th amendment doesn’t thrust us into crisis. We’re already in a fucking crisis. We have a moral degenerate for a president who is unfit in every way for this solemn responsibility. The 25th amendment is the remedy for the crisis.

    I think I’m going to have a stroke I’m so mad. I’m going to go for a walk.

  17. 17.

    waspuppet

    I’m only half kidding when I say it’s Trump, or more accurately that Trump commissioned it and approved it. He hates this job and he never actually wanted it. He just needs to be able to spin an indignant resignation as a win to his fans, and maybe not even that.

  18. 18.

    MomSense

    @TenguPhule:

    My son texted me that he thinks this op-ed is straight up propaganda aimed at “Romney Republicans”. Go ahead and vote for us. We’re keeping you safe from Trump’s worst impulses while making sure the Republican agenda of deregulation,tax cuts, etc. go through just like you want.

  20. 20.

    Mnemosyne

    I missed most of the previous thread because I was out and about at various doctor-y follow-ups (all is well, BTW), somthis is my opinion:

    This op-ed was published to reassure the Permanent Republican Establishment (the one that includes most of the MSM, Fortune 500 companies, Wall Street, etc) that All Is Well and Trump’s subordinates have him under control. Sure, he’ll act out on Twitter now and again, but they’re not going to let him do anything to crash the stock market or start a war.

    To the rest of us outside of the bubble that surrounds the Permanent Republican Establishment, this is about as reassuring as a 13-year-old boy with a blowtorch saying that he’s not going to let his crazy friend use it, because HE’S STILL A 13 YEAR OLD WITH A FUCKING BLOWTORCH!

  22. 22.

    B.B.A.

    As the esteemed Mr. Goldman says, fuckem.

    Probably a deputy assistant undersecretary for something or other that nobody here has ever heard of.

  23. 23.

    Roger Moore

    @MomSense:

    Invoking the 25th amendment doesn’t thrust us into crisis.

    They believe they can forestall a crisis by pretending it doesn’t exist. They’re just like the Soviet joke about pulling the curtains and pretending the train is still moving.

  24. 24.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Roger Moore: When you’re in a dysfunctional organization, deciding to become a whistleblower is difficult. Simply laying out the facts of the dysfunction is only the first step toward resolution. And the later steps are not under the whistleblower’s control. So I’m not asking for the op-ed author to magically remove the president. I don’t, however, want any of the Trump appointees to be a substitute president. If Trump is unfit for the job, let’s get him out. Let’s not let the Republican Party run this game so explicitly. We’ve all known that they want anyone who will enable their agenda, even if he is all the things the op-ed says. The person who wrote the op-ed is one of them. S/he could have redeemed him/herself by going public, but that’s not what they chose.

  26. 26.

    waspuppet

    @MomSense: That’s the part that made me furious. We’ve been in a constitutional crisis since the Merrick Garland nomination. Sadly, the attitude that fixing this crisis would in fact create the crisis is all too common.

  27. 27.

    Miss Bianca

    @Cheryl Rofer: In which case, what role does the Vichy Times play in agreeing to run it? WTF is up with that? So, we’ve gone from “But her EEEEEEEMMMAAIIILLLZZZ” to help Trump get elected to “Don’t worry, be happy, there’s been a palace coup” once the fucker is in office?

  28. 28.

    trollhattan

    @cain:
    They’re about to get Their Precious approved by the senate and all this other kerfuffle can wait. Not a prediction that they’ll do anything after, but shiny bug!

  32. 32.

    TenguPhule

    @Mnemosyne: Its a coup. Its a fucking honest to the gods declaration of an American government coup. We have gone beyond the impossible and come out the other side.

  34. 34.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    I think it’s Jared. Seriously. He’s enough of a coward, enough of a backstabber, and just barely clever enough to do this. The stuff about being a good little Republican working behind the scenes to bring about Republican policies is part of that trail of breadcrumbs, and it sounded phony. Jared couldn’t care less about Republican policies – he’s always been nominally a Democrat – but he cares deeply about his own skin.

  35. 35.

    Schlemazel

    @waspuppet:
    I think that stupid OpEd is Republican electioneering. They know they are getting their asses handed to them this fall largely because hair furor is so obviously unfit. So they want to pretend the adults in the WH are actually controlling him and have everything under control. Note how X claims to love all the great things that have been done. Then they almost pat the reader on the head and say “now, don’t you worry about the bugfuck crazy loon in charge, we have him hemmed in.”

  36. 36.

    piratedan

    @cain: because the GOP Leadership is in on it and its their agenda that is being backed…. just as bad as the folks running the shadow government…. imho

  37. 37.

    gene108

    @cain:

    Brett could murder a baby during his confirmation hearing, for the whole world to see live on
    TV, and Republicans would still vote to confirm him.

    They know their agenda is not popular, and the only way to enforce it over the long run is vis the judiciary declaring liberal legislation unconstitutional

  39. 39.

    Repatriated

    @cain: The timing puzzles me as well. If it was intended to torpedo the SC appointment, it’s slightly late (but may work). If not, why not wait?

    It might be driven by the Woodward book release — trying to get out ahead of it.

  40. 40.

    Chip Daniels

    The enemy of my enemy is still an enemy of the Republic.

    I don’t want some 5 star general to appoint himself Cincinnatus, any more than some self-important midlevel staffer.

  42. 42.

    Cheryl Rofer

  43. 43.

    Omnes Omnibus

    M.S. Bellows, Jr. Retweeted
    skullsinthestars
    ‏ @drskyskull
    23m23 minutes ago

    Let’s all just agree to convince Trump that Stephen Miller wrote the op-ed.
    2 replies 6 retweets 25 likes

  44. 44.

    California Stars

    Yeah, I hate this Op Ed. It does nothing, really. The GOP establishment are still spineless and supportive of Trump; the deplorables have their worst fears confirmed (that there is some kind of insider deep state conspiracy trying to stymie Trump’s greatness) and the rest of us are just being told what we knew already: a bunch of power-hungry, unpatriotic assholes in the administration are trying to hang on as long as they can in order to push through unpopular and awful legislation/nominees. Fuckem. (Apologies to B.B.A. and Goldman)

    Also, just to nitpick in a nitpicky way, this sentence:

    S/he could have redeemed him/herself by going public, but that’s not what they chose.

    Very, very easily could be: They could have redeemed themself by going public, but that’s not what they chose.

    I know “themself” gets the auto spellcheck, and some dictionaries haven’t caught up yet, but yes, it is a word. (And quite an elegant one, at that, especially compared to the whole “s/he” rigamarole. How do you even say “s/he”?).

    them·self
    T͟Həmˈself,T͟Hem-/Submit
    pronoun
    used instead of “himself” or “herself” to refer to a person of unspecified sex.
    “the casual observer might easily think themself back in 1945”

  45. 45.

    Miss Bianca

    @schrodingers_cat: Yeah, but why do the Russian mafiosi want something like this published? Not disputing your theory, necessarily, but I am more inclined upon reflection to consider this a dogwhistle to the so-called “Republican moderates” – not the true believers, but the “men in quiet rooms” – the Romney Republicans, I think Mnem called them.

  47. 47.

    Cheryl Rofer

  49. 49.

    Mike in NC

    Trump clearly needs to route out his disloyal staffer. A massive housecleaning is in order, leaving just Javanka and his idiot sons in charge of everything. What could possibly go wrong?

  50. 50.

    Calouste

    I think the author is someone like Mark Paoletta, someone I found when looking for on Wikipedia for some high up but not cabinet level officials. Of course, there are probably quite a few more people with a similar profile.

    Currently General Counsel for the Office of Management and Budget, which would qualify him as a Senior Administration official. From January 2017 to January 2018, he was Chief Counsel to the Vice President, which would definitely put him within hearing range of early discussions about 25th Amendment solutions.

    Volunteered for the McCain campaign, which might explain the shout-out, and is a long-term Republican operative dating back to volunteering for the 1984 campaign, and worked as outside counsel in the House of Representatives for a decade.

  53. 53.

    feebog

    @TenguPhule:

    Its a coup. Its a fucking honest to the gods declaration of an American government coup.

    Its’ not a fucking coup. Not even close. First, its’ an affirmation that the Woodward book is true. Second, its’ an admission Trump is just as bat shit crazy as most of us on the left believe. Third, it is some world class self aggrandizement by someone lacking the guts to put his name on the OpEd. Fourth, as someone pointed out up thread it is once again proof that Republicans put party over country. Always.

  54. 54.

    TenguPhule

    Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-N.J.) tried to elicit a commitment from Kavanaugh to recuse himself from any Supreme Court cases involving President Trump’s potential criminal or civil liability. Blumenthal suggested it would be a conflict of interest for Kavanaugh to rule in a case directly affecting the man who nominated him to the high court.

    “We’re in uncharted territory,” Blumenthal said of the president’s legal troubles.

    Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III is in a standoff with Trump’s lawyers over his request to interview the president for his investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 campaign. That fight could end up before the Supreme Court.

    Kavanaugh refused to make any commitment, saying it would undermine his independence to pre-judge how he would handle a particular case.

    “I need to be careful,” Kavanaugh said.

    Blumenthal said he was “troubled and disturbed” by Kavanaugh’s “refusal to say you will take yourself out of that case.”

    Kavanaugh testified Wednesday afternoon that he had “never taken a position” on whether it is constitutional for a sitting president to be indicted – although a 2009 article he wrote for the Minnesota Law Review might indicate otherwise.

    In the piece, Kavanaugh writes in a footnote that “even in the absence of congressional conferred immunity, a serious constitutional question exists regarding whether a president can be criminally indicted and tried while in office.”

    “The indictment and trial of a sitting President, moreover, would cripple the federal government, rendering it unable to function with credibility in either the international or domestic arenas,” Kavanaugh wrote in the piece. “Such an outcome would ill serve the public interest, especially in times of financial or national security crisis.”

    But under questioning from Sen. Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.), Kavanaugh said, “I’ve never taken a position on the constitutionality of indicting or investigating a sitting president.”

    The questions from Coons, who has written legislation that would protect special counsels should they be fired, centered on Kavanaugh’s views of executive power. Coons asked Kavanaugh whether he still believes his own remarks in 1998 that a president can fire a prosecutor investigating him “at will.”

    “I think all I can say, senator, is that was my view in 1998,” Kavanaugh said.

    Coons ended his questioning by saying Kavanaugh’s responses “really leave me concerned” because of “our current context” with Trump and the Mueller investigation.

    Further Highlights from the shitshow via Wapo.

  56. 56.

    Roger Moore

    @Cheryl Rofer:
    I think we’re on the same page. I don’t expect this official to take down Trump by himself, but silently blocking him from doing stupid stuff is not the solution. The solution is to come forward publicly, put your name on the stuff you think Trump is doing wrong, and argue for him to be removed from office. It’s not as if Mike Pence is going to be a huge obstacle to the Republican agenda if Trump is removed.

    What these people are doing is a sign they want to have it both ways. They love how Trump resonates with Republican voters, but they want to stick with the traditional Republican agenda those voters rejected by picking Trump over all the conventional Republican candidates. They’re trying to reduce him to a pure figurehead while the traditional Republicans run everything behind the scenes.

  57. 57.

    Juju

    I agree. This person is a coward and should come forward. Country before party for a change, Republicans. I thought the part about “these chaotic times” was touching. There is only one main reason these times are chaotic. What this person is really saying is there’s an arsonist living in our house, he sets things on fire from time to time, but he mows the lawn on occasion, so we do what we can to prevent the fires from spreading too much.

  58. 58.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Jack Shafer makes an interesting point. The op-ed writer is an anonymous author, not an anonymous source. That means that reporters, including those on the other side of the NYT, are free to dig into the writer’s identity.

  61. 61.

    Tazj

    @Schlemazel: Yes, they’re doing to try to save themselves. I agree with Chris Hayes who just said on Twitter that the op-ed “is an insurance policy meant to protect the Republicans and conservatism for when things get much worse.” Someone in his replies quoted Cornyn in the NYT as saying “This is what we have known all along.” I take it to mean they knew Trump was horrible form the start and others were running the show. Somehow he thinks this makes Republicans look better.

  62. 62.

    Mnemosyne

    I need to go see what the Hoarse Whisperer thinks of this. My personal experience is that narcissists absolutely LOATHE feeling like other people have been manipulating them, and they will lash out strong and ugly if they think they’ve caught someone trying to pull their strings.

    The author of this piece may have just made everyone’s life at the White House a thousand times worse with this little stunt, because now Trump is going to resist even the smallest attempt at a compromise from anyone at all.

  63. 63.

    Gvg

    The problem is in a democracy you have to have enough agreement to get anything done. To us the President has always obviously been mentally unfit. To get enough of his cabinet or Congress to agree and act all at the same time is the problem. Trump can actually fire a cabinet member. Therefore if someone speaks up, and doesn’t immediately get enough support to pull it off, all the cabinet ministers who said yes he’s nuts, immediately get fired. Maybe trump can’t get new ones confirmed but he doesn’t really care. Those left keep quiet. Doing that means nobody else know if they are ready to stop Trump. They all need to secretly feel each other out and speak at a chosen time. None of them like or trust each other. All of them have a record of back stabbing I think, so they can’t actually get to a safe understanding. Other cabinets weren’t like this so we didn’t realize his was a problem.
    Congress is a little better off but again, speaking about it before there are almost enough votes is just a way to fail. And remember they aren’t supposed to act alone.
    Stealing papers or ignoring orders is about all we can get until Congressmen know they have the votes.

  65. 65.

    JPL

    @MomSense: That is what pissed me off. How can they save us if they won’t use the 25th amendment. It’s because they wanted to deregulate and pollute our airs, lower taxes for the wealthy, and screw the rest of us.
    We are in a damn crisis.

  67. 67.

    Raven Onthill

    My dear gods. What is Trump going to do? Murder seems not impossible. Starting a war. Anything.

    How could the New York Times have been so stupid as to publish this thing?

    …

    What he is doing right now is demanding that the Times turn the author over to “government.” I think it’s coup times.

  69. 69.

    Cheryl Rofer

  71. 71.

    Emma

    @TenguPhule: For once, I agree with you wholeheartedly. We are in the middle of an honest-to-God coup. Mr. Franklin, sir, we might not be able to keep it.

  72. 72.

    cain

    @MomSense:

    My son texted me that he thinks this op-ed is straight up propaganda aimed at “Romney Republicans”. Go ahead and vote for us. We’re keeping you safe from Trump’s worst impulses while making sure the Republican agenda of deregulation,tax cuts, etc. go through just like you want.

    In a middle of a confirmation hearing? Also, the fact that the president is so crazy that they are scrambling to cover shit up. In the end, they only have limited power because all hte powers are vested in the President. The president can fire all of them, and then what?

  73. 73.

    Tazj

    @JPL: There’s a madman running the country but just relax and think of all the tax cuts wealthy people and corporations are getting and ignore the pollution and child snatching. They’re monsters.

  74. 74.

    Rommie

    I don’t know if it’s intentional or not, but the suggestion that Mueller may/should go silent until after the election – yeah, that just got thrown through a window.

  77. 77.

    Raven Onthill

    Trump: “Does the so-called “Senior Administration Official” really exist, or is it just the Failing New York Times with another phony source? If the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once!”

    I think sending police to the NYT offices is likely. Gods, what were they thinking?

    BTW, did you notice that his grammar improves when he is angry.

  78. 78.

    JPL

    @Tazj: No kidding. This is not Watergate, because this is unelected folks taking over are country. The oped was written to tell Trump to behave or else. It was not written for us.

    Also this is good news for Duncan hunter and the info released about his five affairs today.

  81. 81.

    B.B.A.

    To paraphrase the late Dennis Green, Trump is what we thought he was. He’s what we thought he was. We watched him in the primaries—who the hell takes the primaries like they’re bullshit? Bullshit! We fought him in the general—everybody did three debates—Trump is who we thought he was! That’s why we took the damn field. Now if you want to crown him, then crown his ass! But he is who we thought he was! And we let him off the hook!

  83. 83.

    George

    The author of the op/ed is either Pence or Trump himself, with Ivanka’s help with grammar.

    Pence benefits if Trump is removed from office. Trump benefits because the op/ed leaves the impression that SOMEONE is in control at the White House.

  84. 84.

    Quinerly

    My guess is Dan Coates.
    Plus, he was tight with McCain.
    Could have been planned with McCain on McCain’s deathbed.
    Probably will come forward on his own in a few days.

  85. 85.

    Quaker in a Basement

    @bk: If it’s Pence, then this does not apply:

    the author has been appointed by that president and tells us that he is undermining that president

  86. 86.

    Kathleen

    @Cheryl Rofer: This is the coup that ensures the first coup is still viable. I want to know the NYT’s motive and role on this. That’s just as scary as the first and second coup shit

  87. 87.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Tazj: These “unsung heroes” are FOR the pollution and child snatching. They’re just upset that their pet stuffed shirt is acting completely fucko bazoo while they do it.

  88. 88.

    Kay

    It’s stunning what cowards these people are.

    They think they’re revealing Trump but they’re really revealing themselves- they gave away everything for a tax cut.

    Oh, and too- note how the GOP Congress have just completely run away. They’ve fled the scene of the crime.

  89. 89.

    Cheryl Rofer


    I know Corker’s a Republican, but this sounds like the Pod People have eaten his brain.

  90. 90.

    Miss Bianca

    I can’t believe anyone would think the author is Trump himself. There is no fucking way he would disparage himself like that, even anonymously. He might fellate himself as John Barron, but he wouldn’t, couldn’t, deliberately portray himself as stupid as he truly is. And even if he did – well, I can’t believe that even the FTFNYT would agree to it. Maybe I’m just naive.

  91. 91.

    Origuy

    I don’t think Pence is the author of the op-ed, but he may be the target. Article 4 of the 25th Amendment says:

    Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

    If Pence doesn’t go along, nothing happens, even if the rest of the Cabinet think Trump is a drooling vegetable.

  92. 92.

    Kay

    So now that we’ve (finally) admitted we don’t actually have a President, is anyone with any power going to do anything about it, or will we get more op eds written from a bunker?

    It’s nice that they’re safe as houses there in DC, but regular people are at some risk here- the nutjob could go off at any time.

  94. 94.

    Roger Moore

    @Kay:

    they gave away everything for a tax cut.

    Totally unfair. They gave away everything for a tax cut, regulatory rollbacks, and not one but two Supreme Court seats.

  96. 96.

    The Pale Scot

    The thing is Pence is no improvement. He’s totally on board with “the apocalypse is a feature not bug of our policies”.

  97. 97.

    RAM

    This whole Trump disaster is setting some extremely dangerous precedents. The day after he was elected, I wondered on Facebook whether Constitutional government could survive him. Still wondering, and am even more pessimistic than I was then.

  98. 98.

    Mnemosyne

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I think both of them together. The “Paper of Record” is trying to glue the whole house of cards together by running this.

    Like Kay just said, the Permanent Republican Establishment decided to drive the whole country over a cliff so they could get a fucking tax cut. That was all they cared about.

  100. 100.

    Miss Bianca

    @Cheryl Rofer: “All of us have understood that the President is buggier than batshit, and rather than do anything about it ourselves, our thoughts and prayers are with the staffers who we hope can keep him together just long enough to give us our tax cuts and stack the courts.”

    Arrest them ALL, dammit! They are ALL complicit!

  105. 105.

    Bess

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    Did they say that changes were not suggested? “This phrase seems to point to you.”

    Why might the author not embedded some false clues such as terms or phrases used by other ‘suspects’?

    I don’t think word analysis is likely to answer the author question.

  107. 107.

    BlueNC

    With no evidence whatsoever, my money is on Kirstjen Nielsen. Reasons:
    * It has to be someone relatively younger, who wants to continue working in the post-Trump era.
    * Close connection to John Kelly; therefore, privy to additional information beyond her specific portfolio.
    * Die-hard conservative beliefs match writer’s perspective.

  110. 110.

    Bill Arnold

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    American historian. I’ve been thinking the op-ed sounds like a coup communique too.

    Yeah, it does, but who the fuck in the DJTrump administration is competent to pull such a thing off, as opposed to thinking they are competent enough? Driving me crazy with insufficient information, they are. Way too many possibilities in play.
    If it’s a coup then to the streets we go (even lazy me) to demand a coalition bipartisan caretaker government.

  111. 111.

    Quinerly

    @BlueNC: I had thought about her a couple of hours ago. She’s definitely on the “possible” list. I’m still putting my money on Coates per my comment above. Strong McCain connection…

  112. 112.

    George

    @Miss Bianca: When I mentioned that the author might be Trump himself, I was not quite entirely altogether serious … and yet if he feels power slipping away, and if he wants to hang onto power at all costs, I can see him dictating the gist of the op/ed and having one of his minions refine it and then submit it.

  113. 113.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Late to the party:

    My 2 cents: It is hard to imagine the NYT would have given anonymity on something like this to someone who was not at least as high as a cabinet secretary or assistant to the president.

    My 2 cents: It is hard to imagine the NYT would have given anonymity to a Democrat.

    Probably somebody else already noted this.

  116. 116.

    Jeffro

    @Cheryl Rofer: said it in the last thread and still feel that way: this is indeed what a coup looks like, at least here in America

    And by the way folks, I am fine with that – The writer is a gutless coward of course but the Civil War that this will spark within the Republican Party will be nothing short of glorious. And this is exactly the level of loyalty that Trumpov deserves

  117. 117.

    JMG

    1. The author is chickenshit
    2. The author is stupid. His or her career is now in the hands of the Times. When Maggie and Mike Schmidt call, the author will find it hard to say “no comment” no matter what the story is.
    3. As Matt Yglesias pointed out, these are the words of collaboration, not resistance.
    .4. At dinner tonight, my wife Alice made a good case it’s Kellyanne. She’s sociopathic enough to think she could get away with it.

  119. 119.

    MagdaInBlack

    It’s that smug, sanctimonious, holier-than-thou prig, the theocrat: Pence.

    Just my gut reaction…no good reason.

  120. 120.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Bill Arnold: It’s a soft coup. They let the president* think he is presidenting. But they make the decisions. And we’ve been seeing some of that. Despite the president*’s crush on Vova Putin, the sanctions have continued to pile on Russia. And of course they think they are competent to do it all. Or that competence doesn’t matter as long as they can get the tax cut and roll back regulations. Republicans haven’t been competent at governing for some long time now.

  121. 121.

    Miss Bianca

    @George: See, I can’t imagine it. Not in a million years. I just don’t seen him being that much of a Machiavel – risking present humiliation for dubious future gain – he’s just too dumb, too ornery, and too in love with himself to ever portray himself as such a cuck. Not unless he thought he’d be able to order the Secret Service to line up the entire WH staff and execute them.

  123. 123.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @Raven Onthill: Anyone remember in mid 60s when German news magazine Der Spiegel published an article about German govt and military matters (I think that was the topic)? A minister from Bavaria, a man considered to be a possible future prime minister, had the police and military raid the co offices in several cities and arrest some execs as they returned to Germany from abroad. It was a major scandal, with many seeing echoes of the Nazi era; it was only about 20 yrs after the end of WWII.

  125. 125.

    Bill Arnold

    Haven’t read all the comments yet, so maybe redundant, but another consideration in the coup scenario lines of thinking is that the coup plotters could actually manufacture a serious crisis like a nuclear-football-tackle incident, and Americans would be primed to believe it, whether or not it happened, and look way too adoringly at their alleged saviors. (American football being big in much of America’s fantasy life.)

  127. 127.

    Bess

    @Cheryl Rofer: If you’re at the Cabinet level how hard would it be to have someone do a word/phrase use analysis on your published comments and on others in the Cabinet or a level down?

    If you had just a bit of internet skills you could run a word cloud. Take out any unique words that might turn up in your writing and make sure you include some high count words from multiple ‘likely suspects’.

  128. 128.

    Jeffro

    @Emma: oh heck no.,,we are GONNA keep it, and everyone who tried to sell it for some tax cuts and judges is going to pay

  131. 131.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @MagdaInBlack:

    Richard M. Nixon @ dick_nixon
    It is certainly not Pence himself, but someone who works for him. It was done with his knowledge. I’ll leave money on the table.
    Not Pence’s son, amazingly enough, but his chief of staff Nick Ayers, the fellow who I’d bet any money wrote it.

    If this was Pence’s camp, I can’t but think it means Mueller is closer and has harder evidence of stuff even McConnell and Ryan can’t ignore. This is “you come at the kind, you’d best not miss” stuff. Pence can’t survive if trump turns on him.

  132. 132.

    BlueNC

    @Quinerly: That’s a point against Coates because anyone who knows Pence well and has an iota of common sense should know that Pence is WAY too stupid to be President.

  134. 134.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Jeet Heer is always good.

  136. 136.

    TenguPhule

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    I know Corker’s a Republican, but this sounds like the Pod People have eaten his brain.

    Has he displayed any emotional reactions lately?

  137. 137.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @BlueNC: but he photographs well enough, will do and sign what he’s told, is already picking the judges, and can be easily made to understand that no-one wants him to run for election in 2020

  140. 140.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Bess: There are a bunch of word-analysis programs around. If I were writing something like this, and if I didn’t want to be found out, I would try to write differently than I usually do. Conversely, someone who is acquainted with another’s writing might try to frame them.

    We don’t know the writer’s motives, although some things seep through the writing, like don’t trouble your pretty little heads, we’ve got it under control. Or is that just there for misdirection, and the whole thing is intended to enrage Trump into stroking out?

    I don’t know how good the word-analysis programs are. I played with some that were on the internet a decade or so ago, and I was not impressed.

    I’m sure any number of reporters are working alternative routes as we speak.

  143. 143.

    Quinerly

    @BlueNC: A Pres Pence certainly would be a more traditional Repug pres. Just saying that Coates was a traditional Repug senator… I think the mention of McCain in the op Ed is a huge clue. I’m pretty sure Coates and McCain served in the Senate together in the 1990’s. I think Coates was later an ambassador. Plus, he was mighty pissed over Trump’s performance in Helsinki.

  145. 145.

    Cheryl Rofer

  146. 146.

    Bess

    @Cheryl Rofer: @Cheryl Rofer:

    2. If you have someone who is mentally unfit to be president (as Trump seems to be) there is remedy: the 25th amendment.

    Perhaps every single person working below Trump recognizes that he has to be controlled but few are brave enough to invoke the 25th.

    Perhaps there are enough who, even realizing Trump is batshit crazy, are unwilling to invoke the 25th because they see that as more damaging to their personal goals or the future of the Republican Party.

    I’m willing to give the author some credit for writing a message to the rest of us that can further increase our concern. And, hopefully, move the process faster.

  150. 150.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Another good thread by a knowledgeable person. It’s long, so I’m leaving out the middle.

  151. 151.

    El Caganere

    I don’t think a member of the administration wrote this editorial. I think it was a Russian. The Republican-fluffing is way too apparent, the bizarre attempt to ‘save one’s reputation’…..while maintaining anonymity. Everything sounds off here..

  156. 156.

    dm

    I think it’s possible that this piece is a cry for help directed at Republicans.

    Basically, it’s “That crazy stuff you read in Woodward’s book is all true, but we’re losing our ability to cope with it, and it won’t be long before something seriously bad happens.”

    The 25th Amendment is not a trivial solution, and it requires a lot of cooperation from Congress to make it stick, especially if the President does not agree that he is incapacitated. The current Congress needs a big kick in the pants before it will do anything.

    Or maybe it’s an attempt to get Trump to have a stroke.

  158. 158.

    TenguPhule

    The sleeper cells have awoken’: Trump and aides shaken by ‘resistance’ op-ed

    And Trump is reacting to this in his traditional calm and reasoned manner we’ve come to expect from him…..I’m just kidding.

    Trump reacted to the column with “volcanic” anger and was “absolutely livid” over what he considered a treasonous act of disloyalty, and told confidants he suspects the official works on national security issues or in the Justice Department, according to two people familiar with his private discussions.

    Trump questioned on Twitter whether the official was a “phony source,” and wrote that if “the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once!”

  160. 160.

    MomSense

    Ok let’s play op-ed Clue.

    Kellyanne at the kitchen island with the MacBook Pro.

    Note: George is standing over her shoulder with a divorce lawyer’s number on his key pad, thumb ready to press call.

  161. 161.

    TenguPhule

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    How?

    Accuse them of hiring illegal aliens as proof readers and send ICE in.

    I mean it sounds crazy and he’d be incredibly stupid to actually do something like that.

  163. 163.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Put “Nick Ayers” into a twitter search. Even if it’s not him, The Beast is in his lair, probably madly tapping into his phone, while Melania pops in to read a random paragraph of the op/ed at him before she runs away giggling.

    Pence is in for a rough couple of days.

  164. 164.

    Another Scott

    @gene108: Speaking of which, on All Things Considered on NPR this evening, there was a story about the lawsuit in Texas to declare the PPACA unconstitutional. You see, since the GOP tax bill passed under Reconciliation set the tax penalty for not demonstrating insurance to $0, then (missing step 2), therefore the whole PPACA is unconstitutional. QED.

    (groucho-roll-eyes.gif)

    We have to vote these monsters out of office. It’s the only way things are going to get better.

    61 days to go!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  165. 165.

    Gelfling 545

    @Miss Bianca: I agree with you. This is a man who told evangelical christians while trying to represent himself as one that he has never even apologized to God because in his opinion he had never done anything wrong. No way he would speak of himself as less than perfect. Besides, the article is written in complete sentences with actual words that mean things.

  166. 166.

    PaulWartenberg

    trump’s best solution after this Op-Ed is to fire everyone he suspects of writing it, which eliminates everyone outside of his family circle of trust and most likely Stephen Miller, Bolton, and other hardcore crazies.

    it will likely include Sessions, which means the Mueller investigation loses one key shield keeping it afloat this long.

    We’re looking at a Friday Night Massacre, people, and this is gonna get nasty.

  167. 167.

    TenguPhule

    The phrase, “The sleeper cells have awoken,” circulated on text messages among aides and outside allies.

    “It’s like the horror movies when everyone realizes the call is coming from inside the house,” said one former White House official in close contact with former co-workers.

    The stark and anonymous warning was a breathtaking event without precedent in modern presidential history.

    Alexa, prep the popcorn.

  168. 168.

    Bill Arnold

    @Bess:

    If you had just a bit of internet skills you could run a word cloud. Take out any unique words that might turn up in your writing and make sure you include some high count words from multiple ‘likely suspects’.

    In a pinch you can also run it through google translate/a sequence of obscure languages and have an editor fix up the output.
    I believe that there are stylometry disguise tools but haven’t looked for them.

  169. 169.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Jay: I wouldn’t put it exactly the way you did. Mattis was on the board, and probably not a very active member. My guess is “attractive young blond con lady suckers prestigious old white guys into her game.” Henry Kissinger and George Schultz, along with others who knew better, were on the board. And all the indications are that Elizabeth Holmes and Sunny Balwani were the operators. So Mattis wasn’t a frontman, just a supporter. It’s not a credit to his reputation, but only a small blemish in today’s news.

  170. 170.

    TenguPhule

    Both inside the White House and in Trump’s broader orbit, aides and confidants scrambled to identify the anonymous official, windmilling in all directions; within just hours of publication, they privately offered up roughly a dozen different theories and suggested traitors.

    One aide, for example, suggested a staffer seeking glory and secretly hoping to get caught, while another mused that the official was likely a low-level staffer in a peripheral agency. Others wondered aloud just what constituted a “senior official in the Trump administration.”

    Alexa, I’m gonna need a bigger cocktail.

  175. 175.

    Roger Moore

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    There are a bunch of word-analysis programs around. If I were writing something like this, and if I didn’t want to be found out, I would try to write differently than I usually do.

    If you wanted to be paranoid, you could even use one of those programs to help you write differently. Just pick a few other writers to compare to, and keep revising your writing until it couldn’t figure out it was you.

  176. 176.

    Another Scott

    @Mnemosyne: (Sorry if this has already been posted.)

    Donnie on the Twitter machine:

    Donald J. Trump Verified account @realDonaldTrump
    1 hour ago

    Does the so-called “Senior Administration Official” really exist, or is it just the Failing New York Times with another phony source? If the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once!

    Yes, let’s!! The God King has been offended!! Off with his/her head!!11

    Why don’t we nationalize the FTFNYT!111!! That’ll show them!!!!111!ONE

    (sigh)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  179. 179.

    Jay

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    Mattis tried to get the Company into the Military, while he still wore stars.

    “Mattis not only served on Theranos’s board during some of the years it was perpetrating the fraud after he retired from US military service, but he earlier served as a key advocate of putting the company’s technology (technology that was, to be clear, fake) to use inside the military while he was still serving as a general.”

  180. 180.

    Felanius Kootea

    @Mnemosyne: I think the author(s) of this piece want Pence in and the knowledge that
    Pence will be in soon to be a consideration for the midterms.

  182. 182.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Since we’re talking Indiana

    Mark Murray @ mmurraypolitics
    NBC/Marist poll of Indiana (likely voters):
    Donnelly (D) 49%
    Braun (R) 43%
    Undecided/other 7%

    Aug 26-29

  183. 183.

    dm

    All the talk about foreign policy and robust military makes me wonder if the author is Mike Pompeo, jet-lagged and worn out by being yelled at by North Koreans.

  187. 187.

    David Smith

    In “The Sorrow and the Pity” Pierre Laval’s son say his father considered himself part of the Resistance for attempting to moderate the demands from Berlin.

  192. 192.

    Mnemosyne

    @Jay:

    The New Yorker ran a long and credulous article about Theranos a few years ago. I, the two-time film major, was able to read it and realize that their claims made no sense, but they conned a LOT of people who should have known better, including experts. So while I wouldn’t be surprised if Mattis was trying to get in a bit of double-dealing, I doubt he knew it was snake oil.

  193. 193.

    BlueDWarrior

    @Cheryl Rofer: main-lining ragged and resentment for 50 years have l left conservatives as an intellectual void. But what props them up is the hat that American industrialists fear a socialist quasi-revolution, so they have inculcated enough voters to ensure a real leftist agenda can never need implemented (without basically forming the Third Republic).

    It seems like the final stage is to ensure Republicans own the Senate (and by proxy the courts) forever, thereby ensuring a supposed Conservative majority in perpetuity.

    What they seem to bed ignoring is what happens to the nation when the 60-70% of people who aren’t doctrinaire conservatives internalize the fact that the other 30-40% will quite literally sabotage society to ensure they never have to suffer liberal governance again.

  195. 195.

    Ruckus

    @George:
    Dense didn’t write this, nor did he arrange it. You are right that he’d benefit but he doesn’t have near the chops.
    Shitgibbon? You do understand that he is a massive narcissist don’t you? At his level he couldn’t conceive of anything that reflected badly on him. And this badly? He’s not capable of a lot of things but even thinking of writing anything like this? The only way that’s possible is that the last 3+ yrs has been a monumental joke. And this ain’t no joke. This ain’t bullshit. This is the real McCoy of a country taking a huge shit upon itself by electing someone so massively incompetent and petty.

  196. 196.

    Another Scott

    @JMG: Hmm…

    Elle:

    Donald Trump loves data. He loves loyalty. And he loves people who are good on TV, praising him. He and [Kellyanne] Conway bonded when she joined his campaign and demonstrated a serious knack for all three. (The two first became friendly years ago, when Conway and her husband lived in one of Trump’s buildings in Manhattan.) She has a so-far symbiotic partnership with Bannon, whom she says she’s known “a few years.” She has a much closer and longer-standing bond with Vice President Mike Pence and is equally tight with the media-shy Mercer family, who’ve been bankrolling the Trump-Pence agenda since well before the hyphenate “Trump-Pence” existed.

    (Emphasis added.)

    Rebekah Mercer supposedly really, really wants the government to do what she wants. Bannon’s gone, but Kellyanne is still around…

    Hmmm…

    Let the conspiracy theories bloom!! ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  200. 200.

    Ruckus

    @Miss Bianca:

    Maybe I’m just naive.

    You are not.
    See my post at #194. He is not capable of writing or conceiving of this. That’s part of the huge problem here. He just isn’t capable. Of anything really, but especially this. Yes he says crap that makes him look pathetic, small, an ass, a worthless piece of dung, but that’s because he’s incapable of better. He has been for decades. But his narcissism is what keeps him from being able to conceive of this.

  201. 201.

    Bill Arnold

    @Roger Moore:

    It’s not because I disagree with that point, but that it’s surprising the consensus could crystallize on that point quite so quickly.

    Good spot. Not sure it’s meaningful as opposed to random, but should be watched and maybe investigated with twitter link temporal analysis. (Some causal hypotheses can be rejected this way.)

  202. 202.

    Bill Arnold

    @TenguPhule:

    Have we perhaps become too cynical?

    No.
    Or rather, with the Trump administration one should not prune out outlandish scenarios prematurely.

  203. 203.

    Fake Irishman

    @Ladyraxterinok:

    Yep. It was the defense minister Franz Josef Strauss. He was sacked, though he later went on to lead the Christian Democrats in the 1970s, before the party’s third loss in a row compelled him to quietly retire.

  204. 204.

    Ruckus

    @BlueNC:
    Not to discredit you take on Dense but really what does that make drumpf? He’s proven that he really, really isn’t any smarter than Dense, he’s just a different shade of stupid.

  206. 206.

    J R in WV

    @Roger Moore:

    I’m a bit surprised at how quickly the popular consensus has settled on this person being a coward who should actually do something to get Trump out of office if they think he’s that bad

    Actually, the author has confessed to treason, declaring loyalty to the Republican Party and it’s crazed policy agenda, rather than to the Constitution of the United States, which is what we all swear our loyalty to. From presidents to mere recruits in the draft board induction center, we swear loyalty to the Constitution, and to defend it from all enemies foreign and domestic… IIRC, it was a very long time ago, and there were, um, publicly available intoxicants…

  210. 210.

    J R in WV

    @Raven Onthill:

    BTW, did you notice that his grammar improves when he is angry.

    When his blood pressure spikes, he gets more blood into his brain, such as it is, and so is able to think a little better, remember a little more.

  211. 211.

    Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]

    @Jeffro: I’m thinking that this is a glorious ratfucking opportunity for us on the left. Whispering the RINOs are trying to take down Trump, Time to purge the party by not voting for the traitors (who they don’t know for sure are, but the republican base is definitely the FIRE,READY,AIM group), in the right ears and forums would probably be effective. Might net a few house seats.

  213. 213.

    Bill Arnold

    @J R in WV:

    When his blood pressure spikes, he gets more blood into his brain, such as it is, and so is able to think a little better, remember a little more.

    :-) (seriously, though, I’ve seen this effect (not a medical professional to be clear) in elderly people with vascular dementia; they figure out randomly that anger makes them think more clearly.)
    We best not get him angry then. It would be unethical at the least, given the increased risk of his death or of a medical condition that might disqualify him from presidenting.

  215. 215.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Jay: Thanks. $300k is not a lot in military contracting. The article is only a little to go on, but my guess is that Mattis talked it up, most people ignored him, and a few sent some small contracts. Not praiseworthy, but not in the top 10,000 concerns we’ve got right now.

  217. 217.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @David Smith: So could we start referring to the coup-coup birds in the Maladministration as Lavalites? (Yeah, it’s a stretch, but – interesting visuals,)

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