In Todd We Trust

Benjamin Franklin famously proclaimed, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Well, at least we still have death. For a few days, it seemed like there was a small chance that a couple of GOP holdouts would prevent America from having to suffer the Justice Department-corrupting Todd Blanche as Attorney General, but as one highly-regarded political analyst explained, “It’s worth noting that the GOP holdouts almost always fold, and the worst-case scenario almost always wins out.” And so it went. The writing was on the wall, as surely as the seashells were arranged on the beach. And here we are with a headline that it wouldn’t take a predictive market to predict: Republican Holdouts Say They Now Support Blanche Nomination. In exchange for the support, Blanche posted two documents, one saying the anti-weaponization fund is dead and another that limits the scope of the IRS protections given to Trump and his family. Neither proclamation qualifies as Todd’s gift to the world. As the NYT (Gift Article) explains: “Even in its new form, Mr. Blanche’s order for the I.R.S. to abandon any audits of Mr. Trump’s previous tax returns is an unprecedented and potentially illegal benefit to a sitting president, worth potentially tens of millions of dollars in lower taxes and avoided penalties.” And you can expect a newly-empowered Blanche to bring back some form of the weaponization fund and re-expand the IRS deal for the Trumps. And the GOP members who backed the Blanche confirmation will feign disbelief. Ben Franklin isn’t around, so you’ll have to take my word for it: During this era, these are the most certain things of all.