Yeah, I was all ready to go with a rather belated piece, to be called “The Cowards of Lafayette Park”, sniggering at Gen. Mark Milley—“General Sphere”, I was going to call him—but now I’m going to have to scratch that joke, because the general has said the following, in a prerecorded speech to students at the National Defense University:
As many of you saw the results of the photograph of me in Lafayette Square last week, that sparked a national debate about the role of the military in civil society. I should not have been there. My presence in that moment, and in that environment, created the perception of the military involved in domestic politics.
This puts Milley several thousand miles ahead of Secretary of Defense Mark “Where am I going? Dominate the battle space!” Esper, who, after contradicting himself several times and clearly pissing off his Maximum Leader, apparently feels his best move now is to spend the next six months or so twisting slowly, slowly in the wind, rather than, you know, show some dignity.
And it puts Milley several million lightyears ahead of Attorney General William Barr, who, in his most recent “explanation”, said that he didn’t order the illegal, unconstitutional attack on demonstrators in Lafayette Park with pepper gas and flash-bang grenades. He just wanted someone else to order it. So that’s a big difference right there. And, in addition, pepper gas “is not a chemical irritant,” which must come as a big surprise to the people who make the stuff, because they say it is.
Bill Barr, a coward and a liar. Just like the man he serves.
Afterwords: Bill Barr just can’t catch a break, can he?
No, he can’t, nor does he deserve to. The WashPost’s Jennifer Rubin collects several significant pushbacks against Barr’s reign of terror, deceit, and error, including a letter signed by more than 1,000 former Department of Justice employees demanding an investigation into Barr’s, well, high crimes and misdemeanors, as well as just crimes, in connection with his recent jaunt in the park with the president. Jennie also notes the brutal amicus brief filed by retired New York federal court judge John Gleeson taking apart Barr’s abysmal decision to drop the charges against General Michael Flynn, to which Flynn had already pled guilty. Bill Barr, the king of sleaze.
