Stickin' the Fork In 'im

.@TheRickWilson: "Stone’s last whisper of power and influence is gone, and no matter what happens next week, he’s going to bear the lifelong stain of a man who spent time in prison for crimes he gleefully committed." https://t.co/0mGgB2N0wB

— Rolling Stone Politics (@RSPolitics) February 13, 2020

I've been hearing how Stone didn't really commit crimes (because real crimes are committed by street thugs with guns and knives and violence!  I guess defrauding little old ladies of their SS payments is not real crime, either), and this morning on NPR a former associate of William Barr bleated that this kerfuffle over Stone's sentencing was much ado about nothing (although it caused 4 career DOJ lawyers to withdraw from the case, and one of those four to quite the DOJ outright), and really, he knew more about a case he had no knowledge of beyond press reports, than those 4 lawyers did.

I call bullshit, and Rick Wilson handily explains why:

Stone earned the recommended sentence not because he is a Trump ally, but because he threatened witnesses, lied to the court and to the House of Representatives, and got caught. Worst of all, he threatened Judge Amy Berman-Jackson online, defied various gag orders, and engaged in his usual rat-fuckery. He made the mistake of thinking that Judge Berman-Jackson is as gullible as the claque of hangers-on, wanna-be catamites, and scumbag errand boys with whom Stone usually surrounds himself.

The Trump media has been bleating for two days now that the original sentence recommended by the career Justice Department officials that Stone serve his twilight years breaking rocks, stamping out license plates, and working in a prison call center was a massive miscarriage of justice, a horror beyond words and reason, and a grim penalty for a wee, decrepit old dandy barely able to totter to the stand in his own defense.

Horseshit. The sentence Stone faced was appropriate because his actions weren’t simply a criminal — and criminally stupid — defense of the president. They were just one part of a wider assault from the transparently corrupt Trump-Barr kleptocracy on the entire administration of justice in the United States. William Barr, who has taken on the role of Trump’s family attorney, put his greasy thumb on the scale this week, demanding the U.S. attorneys in the case reduce Stone’s recommended sentence.

It led to the withdrawal of all four of the prosecutors, and the resignation of one. Barr’s bull-in-a-china-shop efforts on Stone’s behalf were comically absurd, driven by a Trump tweet, and will no doubt land him in front of congressional committees for a full political rectal exam in the immediate future.

And yes, I quoted that because it's the first time I've seen the word "catamite" since Anthony Burgess used it in one of the greatest opening sentences in English literature.

But I digress....

Roger Stone committed crimes, and a jury of his peers found him guilty of same.  He lied to the court, too.  Does anybody expect Judge Jackson to listen to the second submission on sentencing the DOJ made, after withdrawing the first?  Yeah, I don't, either.  And on that "full political rectal exam," a lot of people on Twitter have been screaming for that to happen instanter, if not sooner.  I respectfully disagree.  I would much rather Congresspersons have time for staff to prepare questions, and especially questions in response to anticipated answers that are disingenuous and deliberately obfuscatory, in order to conduct such an exam properly.  It's the fools and rubes (usually Republicans, but not necessarily always) who bluster and posture and make asses of themselves while letting the witness (intentionally or not) escape unscathed.  AOC, whatever you may think of her, displays real skills at asking questions not easily evaded or refuted. It's not because she's so spontaneous.  If that kind of hearing takes a month or so to prepare, so be it.

And to return to another matter already dealt with at some length here:

Of course, Stone likely won’t serve his full hitch, because Trump and Barr know that without a pardon Stone will squeal like a rat in a blender, proving that Trump lied to Mueller and about the details of the Trump-Stone-WikiLeaks connections. Stone sure as hell deserves his time in the graybar hotel for reasons of both ordinary and moral justice, and Judge Berman-Jackson has also likely had enough of Stone’s weapons-grade bullshit and may treat the revised DOJ sentencing letter as the political trash it is.

Yeah, it doesn't work that way.  Stone has no reason not to testify now (anymore than Manafort does; everyone expected him to squeal and keep his ass out of jail, but that didn't happen.  Arguably he went to jail rather than squeal.  Speculation was he feared the Russians, in some shape or form, more than prison.  Who knows?), he's already a convicted felon.  A pardon won't loosen his lips; he might even go back to jail (or need another pardon) rather than comply with demands to testify.  We already know Trump lied to Mueller (Mueller said so) and the trial revealed many of the details of the "Trump-Stone-Wikileaks connections."  I can point you to the CNN article on that subject from last November.  It wasn't the bombshell everyone wanted it to be, so now we're waiting for the "real" bombshell.  There isn't one coming.   Sorry.  And if it did, it still wouldn't convince Lisa Murkowski or Susan Collins that it was an offense worthy removing Trump from office.  Sen. Collins in particular made it clear no such offense exists in the annals of human behavior, so stop bugging her about it.

No, what's going to happen is that voters are going to pay attention, or they aren't.  The encouraging sign is that they are, and they are no more impressed than they ever were.  It was noted recently that the Gallup poll showing Trump to have an approval of 49% of the country was not a rise due to impeachment, but an aberration.  His approval of only 43% has been fairly stable since shortly after he took office; nothing has really changed it.  Unless the Democrats run another nominee who is as off-putting as Hillary proved to be, it's hard to imagine 43% approval translating into four more years.

Far easier to imagine Roger Stone spending those four years, at least, in a federal prison.  Judges don't like it when you fuck with the legal system.  In fact, if you're into retribution, and convinced Trump is going to pardon Stone for reasons unfathomable to your humble scribe, consider what Rick Wilson knows about him:

In the late 1990s, I once asked the famous (or infamous, depending on your perspective) New York political operator Ray Harding about Stone. Harding was a man who knew where all the bodies — literal and metaphorical — were buried. He looked across his desk from behind a cloud of unfiltered-Camel smoke and said to me, “Roger parlayed one line of bullshit into a career. The only person who buys his bullshit is that moron Trump.”

At least some justice has come for Fort Lauderdale’s most prominent Penguin cosplayer and sleaze-ball boulevardier already. Trump left his former confidant hanging for two years, reducing Stone to penury in a one-bedroom apartment. Even if Trump pardons him, Stone will never work in politics again at any serious level — not that he did anyway.

He’ll never get out from under his legal bills. His speaking circuit appearances at local Republican clubs in Florida often bring in tens of dollars, and it’s gonna take longer than Stone has on this Earth to catch up. His days as a provocateur are over. He may get a hit or two on Infowars or OANN, but he’ll never be in the big green rooms again. His days without having the mark of “felon” — pardoned or not — branding him are over.

....

The attention he craves will, on its best days, come as a form of pity. Stone’s last whisper of power and influence is gone, and no matter what happens next week, he’s going to bear the lifelong stain of a man who spent time in prison for crimes he gleefully committed.

Couldn't happen to a more deserving guy.