Update: I just found this great caricature by the inimitable DonkeyHotey which deserves to top my story:
Devin Nunes is in the headlines. His being implicated in the Ukraine scandal was the top story in The Washington Post today.
For nostalgia’s sake remember this Nunes story:
See some of the tweets his Twitter lawsuit prompted.
Of course there’s no-one here except perhaps a few trolls who doesn’t despise this creepy boil on Trump’s ass.
Now Ted Lieu who I would venture to say everyone here admires, and some may have thought would make a good vice presidential candidate (alas, he was born in Taiwan), also makes the Washington Post with a headline that is probably a historic first for that paper in that it begins with “Shove it.”
‘Shove it,’ Rep. Ted Lieu tells GOP colleague Devin Nunes in response to lawsuit threat
Watch video here:
Excerpt: The politicians’ dueling played out, as it almost always does these days, largely on Twitter and cable TV.
Rep. Ted Lieu (D) alleged in December that fellow California Rep. Devin Nunes (R) conspired with Lev Parnas, a former associate of President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, to undermine the United States. Parnas has pleaded not guilty to violating campaign finance laws.
Then a lawyer for Nunes, who is the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, sent a multi-page missive threatening to sue for damage to Nunes’s reputation, Lieu tweeted. The Democratic congressman replied with a letter of his own and posted a photo of the document online.
“I welcome any lawsuit from your client and look forward to taking discovery of Congressman Nunes,” he wrote. “Or, you can take your letter and shove it.”
On MSNBC’s “Hardball” on Friday, Lieu doubled down. “It turns out that based on text messages in the record and the amazing interview on [MSNBC’s] Rachel Maddow Show that I’m right,” he said. “Truth is a defense.”
Lev Parnas has proved to be an unexpected 24ct real gold foil wrapped gift for us. Rachel opened the early Valentine’s Day present in her two interviews and inside were lots of unexpected packages. Here’s yet another unexpected, truly unexpected but not surprising, gift from newly released texts (described in The Washington Post story):
Nunes aide communicated with Parnas about Ukraine campaign, messages show
The newly released texts show that Parnas was working last spring to set up calls for Harvey with the Ukrainian prosecutors who were feeding Giuliani information about Biden.
“Also do you want to interview the general prosecutor who got [ditched] by Biden ? Also the anti corruption prosecutor ? Let me know,” Parnas wrote on April 19.
“Does tomorrow work?” Harvey responded.
The messages also show that Harvey met with Parnas and Giuliani at the Trump hotel in Washington.
Harvey and a spokesman for Nunes did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The text messages corroborate* Parnas’s previous claims that he arranged conversations with the Ukrainian prosecutors for the Nunes aide. And they deepen questions about how much Nunes knew about the pressure campaign — even as he served as one of Trump’s most vociferous defenders during the House impeachment hearings.
“I was in shock when I was watching the hearings and when I saw Devin Nunes sitting up there,” Parnas told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow this week. “I texted my attorney. I said, ‘I can’t believe this is happening.’ ”
*Jan. 16 article “‘He knows who I am’: Lev Parnas says Devin Nunes was ‘involved in getting all this stuff on Biden’”
Ted Lieu has to be really, really happy.
Yesterday’s story: "Very Stable Genius" I read author's Wash. Post article four times. I wish all of you could read it (Trump to top generals: “You’re a bunch of dopes and babies”)