[guest post by Dana]

And another one bites the dust. This time it’s Chief of Staff Reince Priebus. He told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that he had resigned yesterday, and explained that the reason for his departuer was that President Trump was gong in a different direction. A direction that would not include Priebus. I guess Priebus wasn’t serving Trump honorably after all, eh?

“Look, the President wanted to go a different direction. I support him in that,” he told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on “The Situation Room.”

“I’m doing great,” Priebus said. “I’ve been obviously talking to the President for a few days about this. … the President was great.”

When Blitzer asked Priebus specifically about why he resigned, Priebus said he didn’t want to go into that. He then went on to say that he is still on the Trump Train and supports the president in furthering his agenda. He also told Blitzer that his greatest accomplishment was “getting everyone in the West Wing moving together in the right direction”. Okay then.

The president announced on Twitter that Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly would be replacing the departing Priebus:

And then he remembered to say something nice about Priebus:

President Trump is now on his second chief of staff in 190 days. Say, remember when he mocked President Obama for going through three chiefs of staff in three years?

Hm, of course one is inclined to ask, what’s keeping this president from accomplishing his agenda??

After seeing how he backstabs employees, turns on a dime, publicly shames and humiliates them, I can’t understand why would anyone sign up for such abuse and chaos. But, be that as it may, I guess the next question is, who’s next to go? And perhaps more importantly, as we watch this unfolding drama, where does this leave Bannon, Scaramucchi, and Kushner? Speculate all you want.

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

[guest post by Dana]

Charlie’s mother announces her little boy’s passing :

Our beautiful little boy has gone, we are so proud of you Charlie.

Charlie died at a hospice care center. The courts refused to let Charlie die at home as his parents had requested. Even in death, the powers that be determined how Charlie’s parents would say their final good-bye.

May Connie Yates and Chris Gard find great comfort and grace during this season of immense grief. And may a large portion of that comfort be found in knowing that their sweet Charlie has been welcomed home by the angels, and into the loving arms of God.

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

Do I blame John McCain, Lisa Murkowski, and Susan Collins for killing ObamaCare repeal? Why, sure I do! But not for last night’s vote. Rather, for their disgraceful vote against the same repeal bill they voted for in 2015 (with the exception of Collins). Which means I also blame the other people responsible, whom I have already named: Lamar Alexander, Rob Portman, Shelley Moore Capito, and Dean Heller.

I will never forgive them. They are dead to me. And I will work to defeat Heller, who is the next one up for re-election, in the primaries.

But skinny repeal was crap and deserved to go down. Last night’s vote was not the death knell. That already happened a couple of days ago. (And don’t talk to me about just sending a bill to conference. If they can’t agree amongst themselves, how is going to conference going to fix anything?)

Meanwhile, I see some people trying to blame Trump for this. Nah. I don’t see it. He would have signed anything. This is squarely on the shoulders of the turncoats who switched their votes.

Meanwhile, how about that batsh!t insane Scaramucci guy? Ryan Lizza has a piece in the New Yorker that Scaramucci has functionally admitted is accurate, by saying he made a mistake trusting a reporter. The piece makes for delightful reading from start to finish.

“They’ll all be fired by me,” he said. “I fired one guy the other day. I have three to four people I’ll fire tomorrow. I’ll get to the person who leaked that to you. Reince Priebus—if you want to leak something—he’ll be asked to resign very shortly.” The issue, he said, was that he believed Priebus had been worried about the dinner because he hadn’t been invited. “Reince is a fucking paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac,” Scaramucci said. He channelled Priebus as he spoke: “ ‘Oh, Bill Shine is coming in. Let me leak the fucking thing and see if I can cock-block these people the way I cock-blocked Scaramucci for six months.’ ” (Priebus did not respond to a request for comment.)

Scaramucci was particularly incensed by a Politico report about his financial-disclosure form, which he viewed as an illegal act of retaliation by Priebus. The reporter said Thursday morning that the document was publicly available and she had obtained it from the Export-Import Bank. Scaramucci didn’t know this at the time, and he insisted to me that Priebus had leaked the document, and that the act was “a felony.”

“I’ve called the F.B.I. and the Department of Justice,” he told me.

“Are you serious?” I asked.

“The swamp will not defeat him,” he said, breaking into the third person. “They’re trying to resist me, but it’s not going to work. I’ve done nothing wrong on my financial disclosures, so they’re going to have to go fuck themselves.”

Scaramucci also told me that, unlike other senior officials, he had no interest in media attention. “I’m not Steve Bannon, I’m not trying to suck my own cock,” he said, speaking of Trump’s chief strategist. “I’m not trying to build my own brand off the fucking strength of the President. I’m here to serve the country.” (Bannon declined to comment.)

. . . .

Scaramucci said he had to get going. “Yeah, let me go, though, because I’ve gotta start tweeting some shit to make this guy crazy.”

LOL. The guy is entertaining, paranoid, not very bright, and completely insane. He reminds me of someone. It’s on the tip of my tongue.

[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]