Thursday, February 28, 2019

7TH DISTRICT (INCLUDES MOST OF STARK CO) CONGRESSMAN BOB GIBBS EMBARRASSED HIMSELF IN COHEN HEARING?

MICHAEL COHEN
THE PERFECT SQUELCH
ON 7TH DISTRICT CONGRESSMAN BOB GIBBS


Even Congressman Bob Gibbs' political friends do not defend congressman's inability to communicate effectively


Watching Gibbs yesterday as one of 17 minority Republican members U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Oversight and Reform embarrassed himself and his constituents in Ohio's 7th congressional district which includes most of Stark County.

But that is what one gets when a political party gerrymanders congressional districts so that the chief attribute of getting elected in to be "alive as evidenced by breathing.'

People like Ohio Republican Party chairwoman Jane Timken (a Stark Countian, by the way) thinks that gerrymandering which inflicts the likes of Gibbs on is good for the country and Ohio.

Wow!

What a sad day for Stark County and the rest of the 7th.


If it were not for the gerrymandering, Stark et al might have elected Ken Harbaugh (Country Over Party) last November.

Instead, we got a Party Over County guy who seems to think being a member of the Committee on Oversight entails being a cheerleader for the president and exercising oversight over a co-equal branch of government is an act of disloyalty.

Oversight means. holding the executive and judicial branches accountable in our Constitutional system of "checks and balances," no?

Here is how the NY Magazine Intelligencer described Gibbs' performance in Washington yesterday:


The Committee is one of several with the Democratic Party takeover of the House in the November 2018 elections who feel that the changeover from  being Republican-controlled to being Democratic-controlled was a message from voters that the public wants the House and Senate to reassert the Congress as being a co-equal branch of government with the Executive and Judicial branches of government and in particular the Committee on Oversight ... to hold the executive branch accountable.

Most Republicans serving in the Senate and House apparently think that their role is to defend the president on a host of allegations of presidential misconduct. Chief defender on the Committee is Republican Freedom Caucus member Jim Jordan of Ohio.  Jordan is the ranking minority member.

And Gibbs of Holmes County demonstrated he is one of the sycophants to the president.

We can all agree that Michael Cohen, a convicted felon, is close to being a match to the president conduct and veracity.

It seems his willingness to "take a bullet for the president" is how get was able to "up close and personal" with Donald J. Trump.

Trump must have sensed in 2007 when he started to have Cohen doing his Trump Organization legal work that Cohen was going to do what he did over the next 10 years:  "protect and take marching orders (direct or implied) from Donald J. Trump.

"Dumb Bob" proved his stupidity yesterday in comparing his "little bit" of knowing President Trump to Cohen's 10 years or better.

But that "ain't all."

First, Stark County Political Report (SCPR, The Report) readers need to see the Gibbs' debacle.

Bloomberg as upload the entire hearing to YouTube.  Gibbs begins his questioning at the 3:18:42  mark of the hearing and ends it at the 3:22:49 mark.

And to really get the feel for the incoherent Gibbs' rambling, here is the full transcript of his exchange with Cohen:

Gibbs:

THANK YOU, MR. CHAIRMAN. I'VE BEEN SITTING HERE, I'M NEW TO THE COMMITTEE. I'M NOT AN ATTORNEY.

I WAS LOOKING THROUGH THIS -- YOU COMING HERE AND YOU RAIL ON THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, COMMANDER IN CHIEF, WHILE HE'S OVER ACROSS THE PACIFIC OCEAN, TRYING TO NEGOTIATE AND HAVING THE COMMITTEE AT THIS TIME

BUT YOU CALL HIM A RACIST, A CHEAT. YOU'RE ATTACKING HIS CHARACTER AND I'VE BEEN WITH THE PRESIDENT A LITTLE BIT AND I DIDN'T SEE THAT IN THE PRESIDENT. I SEE A PRESIDENT WHO'S VERY SINCERE, HE'S TRYING TO MAKE THIS COUNTRY BETTER FOR EVERY AMERICAN

AND FOR YOU TO COME IN HERE AND DO THIS, IT'S REALLY UNBELIEVABLE. REAL REPENTANCE WOULD BE GO SERVE YOUR TIME AND DON'T COME HERE AND MAKE ALLEGATIONS.

LOOKING HERE FROM THE REMARKS ON THE PROSECUTOR OF THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK, FALSE STATEMENTS TO BANK 3 WHICH COHEN PLEADED GUILTY -- IT WAS A LONG SERIES OF SELF-SERVING LIES COHEN TOLD NUMEROUS FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS.

EARLIER IN YOUR TESTIMONY, I THINK I HEARD YOU SAY IT WAS A HOME EQUITY LOAN. BUT THE PROSECUTORS THINK THERE WERE OTHER FINANCIAL THINGS THAT YOU DID. MANAGED TO COMMIT A SERIES OF CRIMES ALL WHILE BEING A LICENSED ATTORNEY.

ALSO THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT PROSECUTORS SAID THAT -- WROTE THAT YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS OF WRONGDOING IS FLEETING, THAT YOUR REMORSE IS MINIMAL AND YOUR INSTINCT TO BLAME OTHERS IS STRONG.

SO I'M KIND OF LEFT HERE, WHY YOU WORKED FOR THE PRESIDENT FOR TEN YEARS, BEFORE HE WAS PRESIDENT, IF YOU HAVE ANY SENSE OF INTEGRITY, WAS THAT BAD, WHY DIDN'T YOU LEAVE? YOU WEREN'T STUCK THERE FOR FINANCIAL REASONS, YOU HAD WAYS TO LEAVE. YOU WERE AN ATTORNEY.

THAT'S KIND OF -- THE PRESIDENT IS WORKING TIRELESSLY.

YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE A VERY LUCRATIVE DEAL AT SOME POINT IN YOUR LIFE BECAUSE YOU DON'T LOOK LIKE YOU'RE CLOSE TO RETIREMENT. YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE SOME TYPE OF A DEAL.

ONE OF MY QUESTIONS IS, TALKS WITH YOU AND YOUR ATTORNEY AND THERE'S BEEN TALKS ABOUT MEMBERS OF CONGRESS AND STAFF AND YOU SAID THERE WAS SOME DISCUSSIONS, WAS ANY OF THOSE DISCUSSIONS THAT YOU OR YOUR ATTORNEYS HAD WITH MEMBERS OF CONGRESS OR STAFF OR PROSECUTORS TO CONSIDERATIONS TO FAVOR OR OTHER CONSIDERATIONS OF YOUR FAMILY IN THE FUTURE?

NO. THE CONVERSATIONS WERE ABOUT THE TOPICS AND BECAUSE THERE WERE THINGS THAT ORIGINALLY WE COULD NOT SPEAK ABOUT AT THE REQUEST OF WHETHER IT WAS THE SPECIAL COUNSEL'S OFFICE, THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OR ANY OF THE OTHER AGENCIES INCLUDING THE HOUSE SELECT INTEL OR THE SENATE SELECT INTEL.

THIS WORLD TODAY WITH THESE LUCRATIVE BOOK DEALS AND MOVIES THAT COME ABOUT, I THINK YOU'LL BE PRETTY GOOD IN ABOUT FIVE YEARS.

COHEN

JUST FOR YOUR PERSONAL EDIFICATION HERE, I WAS ASKED TO COME HERE. YOUR CHAIRMAN SENT A LETTER TO MR. DAVIS. AND I ACCEPTED. SO I'M HERE VOLUNTARILY.

I UNDERSTAND THAT. I THINK THIS IS POLITICAL THEATER.

I TAKE NO PLEASURE IN SAYING ANYTHING NEGATIVE ABOUT MR. TRUMP.

YOU'VE MET HIM FOR A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME. I'VE BEEN WITH HIM FOR OVER A DECADE. I'VE TRAVELED WITH HIM INTERNATIONALLY, I'VE SPENT DINNERS WITH HIM.

IT DOESN'T MAKE ME FEEL GOOD ABOUT WHAT'S GOING ON HERE. AND AS FAR AS SAVING FACE, I'M NOT SURE HOW BEING IN FRONT OF THE WORLD, BEING CALLED --

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