Bad Santa

 Bad Santa

Like the Energizer Bunny of Evil or some Bad Santa, Mr. T. has become the unwanted gift that keeps on giving. This 79-year-old isn’t unusually energetic; he's simply being carried by momentum, moving destructively forward until something stops him.

Democrats and many Republicans have jumped on the Epstein bandwagon as a shortcut to redemption. It seems that, while many can accept his unannounced suspension of habeas corpus, the ruination of our education system, the abandonment of the social services system, and the simplistic tariff carnage wrought upon the economy, some will draw the line at sex with a minor.

People excused his Access Hollywood remarks about grabbing women by their privates and his comments about barging in on young teen girls changing into their bikinis because he owned the Miss Teen USA pageant for 19 years. That was just locker room braggadocio. But it seems there is a line that cannot be crossed, even by a crass Republican with a cult-like following.

He is now squirming as he is hoisted on his own petard. That phrase comes from Hamlet where someone is harmed by their own plan to harm others. The petard in Shakespeare’s time was a small explosive device used to breach gates or doors. In this case, Mr. T. has used the “Epstein files” to attack others but it may now have blown up in his face. He will surely use the full force of the federal government to spin and whitewash this to walk away unscathed, but this news cycle seems to keep spinning.

The FBI in New York is now combing through a “truckload” of evidence and there are reports that agents are instructed to “flag” any records where Mr. T. is mentioned. So, the man with the most to lose in this investigation hired the director of the FBI, Kash Patel, who is overseeing the investigation that might be damaging to the president. Mr. Patel works directly for the DOJ, headed by Pam Bondi, also appointed by Mr. T. Perhaps his administration needs to consider hiring an independent investigator. That appointee could end up being someone like R. Kelly who would first need a pardon from his sentence of 30 years for a child pornography and exploitation conviction. We know that the president has publicly drawn the line at 12 year-olds and told 14 year-olds he would consider dating them in two years. R. Kelly abused his 14 year-old goddaughter so it might be a toss-up.

How many people think that the FBI “flagging” of these records and documents will result in a fair and impartial report of what really happened? As some might say, “I was born at night, but not last night.”