Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Stewart Abercrombie Baker

You would think they would have trouble digging up people to front for Donald Trump, especially when it's Donald tweeting about Barack Obama having wire tapped his Trump Tower--President Obama is just so BAD or maybe SICK.

But no, this is Washington, so they can always find somebody by dangling the bauble of 15 minutes of fame, and who rose to take that bait? Some gnome called Stewart Abercrombie Baker.

So here's how this Washington lawyer from the Steptoe and Johnson firm tried to talk past the latest Donald debacle:


"We know from multiple reports, including The New York Times, that there were intercepts and there were FISA orders in connection with Russian efforts to influence the campaign. And we know from Mike Flynn’s resignation that those intercepts covered conversations that members of the campaign had.

And I think it’s perfectly reasonable to say, let’s investigate that. What we have heard from former Obama administration officials are very limited non-denial denials. That is to say, the president says, I didn’t order anything. Well, of course, he doesn’t.

But the Justice Department and the FISA court could have. We have Jim Clapper saying, we didn’t target the campaign or Mr. Trump.

There’s a lot of other people that could have been targeted that would look pretty political if it was done in bad faith. I think it’s fair to ask the question, what are the facts?

And that’s what your committee is for."
--Stewart Abercrombie Baker, Lawyer



Now, all this has the patina of respectability, until you realize, actually, Mr. Baker is obfuscating by changing the subject.  The subject was whether President Obama sent in the spooks to wire Trump Tower and listen in to whatever conversations might occur between, say, Ivkana and her lingerie designer. The subject is not whether the Feds were sent to listen to Russian agents and found themselves listening to Trump.
And what, pray tell, is "bad faith?" And how does anything in Washington not look "pretty political?"

 And to say we have "non denial denials" is simply inaccurate. Mr. Obama's men are saying, "We didn't do it. If anyone did do it, wasn't us." A non denial denial? No, simply a denial. What Mr. Baker wants is for Mr. Obama to claim omniscience.

Mr. Baker is picking up the only non lunatic spin you can make on the latest Trump tweet--if the CIA or some intelligence agency were listening to the Russians, as they ought to be, then if someone in Trump tower was talking to the Russians, well then Trump may be correct, someone was listening to Trump Tower for more than tweets.

Of course, as the saying goes, just because you are paranoid doesn't mean there's nobody out there trying to kill you. 

What everyone is arguing about is whether Mr. Trump has any justification for believing people are out to get him. So here we have a Washington lawyer claiming the proprietor of a house of ill repute should be taken seriously for complaining about men peeking through the windows and that is bad behavior on the part of the peepers.  Well then, we have to ask about the proprietor.

Looking this toady up on the internet, I was surprised to discover Mr. Stewart Abercrombie Baker  was in my class in college. We graduated the same year.
Looking him up in my yearbook, I surprised to find he didn't look the same then. The larger surprise is he was president of the parachute club. I didn't even know there was a parachute club.  Life is full of surprises. 

 So he went on to law school at UCLA, where he did not become a lawyer to the stars, but he did  become a lawyer to the third tier wannabes, i.e. the Washington, D.C. politicos, and an appointed toady in  various Republican administrative posts having to do with national security and the violation of civil rights in the name of keeping America safe again.

I, on the other hand, settled into happy obscurity, and have never been asked to appear on the PBS News Hour, where this toad was trying to hop into the limelight last night.  Listening to this guy pimp for Trump and the forces of darkness, I had to think, maybe it's better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.
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