Bad Boys (an expanded post)
A SIMPLE EXPLANATION
There must be an easy explanation for this. A story so simple even the most unbelieving would believe. I mean it is staring us straight in the face. We just don't see it yet.
I mean a half million in cash (ok, a drop more) lying around (ok, stuffed in a few remote locations) is not that much when you consider if you just put away five crisp $100 bills, maybe with a smidge of DNA of a convicted crook on a couple of them, every day for not even three years, you would be done. Could have been for the cleaning lady he forgot to pay.
And who doesn't have gold bullion in their house? I thought it was just a given. When you work for the government and see the level of incompetence and corruption that Senator Menendez has witnessed, you know our democracy is in, as Jack Nicholson would say, grave danger. Any prudent person would certainly take precautions like investing in gold (without technically paying for the same).
Politicians do favors for constituents every day. What else do they do? Poor Senator Menendez (ok, maybe not so poor) and his beleaguered spouse (ok, maybe not as beleaguered as when her house was being foreclosed, ie before it became Fort Knox and the US mint headquarters) are clearly being indicted for the crime of being good friends to so many. And if being good is wrong, well, I don't want to be right.
So give this couple a break. Innocent until proven guilty. Just because there is a history of, let us politely call it, questionable behavior on the part of the Senator, one plus one does not always add up to a guilty plea.
I am a die in the wool Democrat. And I am dying a little today thanks to a fellow New Jerseyan or is it Jerseyite?). I have forever tried to slice and dice Republicans for their hideousness. But, I guess I have to be an equal opportunity hater.
For $2000 and the win on double Jeopardy: name the politician caught not merely with his hand in the cookie jar, but both hands, arms, and every other body part, covered up (I didn’t say cover-up) to his eyeballs in bad.
You got some 'splainin to do Senator.
FIFTEEN MINUTES
Next we have Rudy. Not content to ride off into the sunset clinging to a noun, a verb and 9/11. Not enough just to soil himself with the 2008 disastrous attempt to gain the party's nomination, turning possibility into a dung heap in the blink of an eye and a few slips of a political tongue.
No, he had to try to hold onto his fifteen minutes for the next fifteen years, kissing the feet of Donald in the hopes he could eat a scrap or two that fell off the table.
Dripping colored sweat from his head, pontificating in front of the Four Seasons of where the Hell am I. Twisting himself into knots in his efforts to turn Mr. Trump's fantastic tales into Kellyanne Conway's alternative facts. Willing to slander the unsuspecting at will. Doing whatever, whenever, as long as it kept him from disappearing into the morass. Turning himself into his own caricature.
So now he is nothing more than a beaten up, beaten down old man. Willing to sell himself for a few hundred dollars to those seeking a paragraph or two on their cellphones.
No one deserves a cruel ending to their story. But, Rudy, you can't say you didn't see this coming.
Sir, you got some 'splainin to do.
THE KING
And then there was one. The undisputed king of ill repute. Making bad into a badge of honor, dishonesty into a bumper sticker and cruelty into a kind of game show.
Leaving a trail of crimes wide enough for a gaggle of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers to drive a truck through (or at least into a crowd). Giving the Constitution and democracy a run for its money.
He has spent a lifetime making horrid choices, but has bullied, cajoled, threatened, intimidated and insulted his way beyond his transgressions. Now he faces the possibility of consequences, but continues to attempt to turn his sow's ear into something remarkably different.
Will this bad boy turned worse man ever suffer in proportion to the pain he has inflicted? Will New York, Georgia or Florida provide some sense that there is cosmic karma, that what goes around at least remotely touches down on coming around?
For the sake of our collective sanity, we hope that the last near decade in which we have suffered this insufferable man will lead to a conclusion that comports with reality. That Donald Trump will no longer merely stand accused but convicted of having committed atrocities that sullied his office and this nation.
The sun will shine a bit brighter should that day arise. Until then we merely shake our heads at the destruction he has caused, and hold our breath that he will not once again become the chosen one.
Mr former President, you got some 'splainin to do.