The Hit Man

He envisioned himself as the consigliere, Tom Hagen to Don Corleone, Roy Cohn to his mob boss. But though he shared a name (but not a spelling) with Donald Trump's favorite hit man, he was never considered by the Godfather as much more than a foot soldier, a Joe Valachi to Vito Genovese. Today Michael Cohen snitches.

And like all Mafia underlings, Mr. Cohen's litany of sins will be laid out in full view before the jury. Yes, he lied, he stole, he cheated. He was evil and he did what the job required. He was good at being bad. Now the job of the prosecution is to make sure their star witness is not bad at being good.

"Follow the money."  The signature phrase of the mysterious informant who led Woodward and Bernstein to Watergate and the White House and brought a President down a half century ago. And that is still the reality today as we have been witness (well, not actually, since there are no cameras in the courtroom) to the meandering path of the hush money payment to Stephanie Clifford (why is she only referred to by her "stage" name) and reimbursement to Mr. Cohen. Now, he will connect all the dots and walk us directly into the Oval Office as he and Mafia Don, a/k/a President Don, discuss what bad guys talk about when being bad.

In the end all of this may not matter much, as we have spent the last decade wallowing in the mud with Mr. Trump and nothing can really surprise us about him anymore. Those who love him, love him despite, or maybe because of his warts. For the rest of us, well, we don't require more convincing of the depth of his slime.

And the sad truth is that it will only take one always Trumper on the jury to hang it, much as Mr. Trump would so dearly wish that fate for Mr. Cohen. And if the result of all of this is but a hanging chad, where do we go from there with this tangled web?

There is however one silver lining. If we are fortunate maybe, just maybe, we can get a great film out of all of this. A kind of Godfather meets All the President's Men. Then at least we would have something of lasting value to show for what we have had to endure under our Mafia King. Even should the hit man not succeed, if we get a hit all will not be lost.