[ZNPaaneah]

Dodging questions about Russian ties, firing top officials for their Russian ties, and refusing to release tax returns which might show Russian ties. This is a lot of smoke.

As a rule you don't dodge questions because this just makes the story bigger. This is another application of the "false positive paradox". When a story like this breaks if you are one of the 20 out of the 21 who is not actually guilty you need to get your side of the story out as soon as possible otherwise you appear guilty by default. On the other hand if you are guilty and they can prove it you can't say anything because the lies and coverup are often bigger crimes than the initial crime. Yesterday the major news networks were running clips of Trump looking like a fool as he is repeatedly asked questions concerning the NY Times article and the Intelligence report that his campaign was in frequent contact with Russian officials and all the while he sits there dumbly refusing to answer. This simply tells all the news reporters that this is a big story and you can be sure they are going to be jumping on it today.

Top Republican Senators on the Intelligence committee were questioned and they did not dispute any of the claims in the NY Times article. What is clear even to the President is that there is a coordinated campaign to leak this information. The President is threatening them which is only going to make the imperative to get the story out all the more urgent.

To ignore questions asked by reporters but then to tweet about it makes him look even more impotent and foolish. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. You cannot call this foolish, silly, a non story and then demonstrate that this is what you are focused on in your tweets.

I have to believe that Obama was able to get a thorough investigation done during the transition so that this cannot be buried or covered up. I also believe that the way in which this has been handled has been strategic to get key people in the campaign in a position where they will have to resign and could be threatened with felonies in exchange for their testimony. Flynn is clearly a very key target in their investigation. Now that they have a felony charge on them they can go ahead and legally subpoena all the documents relevant to the case and use them in court.

It seems to me that Comey will be the next shoe to drop, his behavior in light of this report is outrageous. At the same time he is investigating Trump's campaign for frequent contacts with the Russians he decides he needs to announce that they are reopening the investigation on Clinton? That announcement implied new evidence when there wasn't any. That announcement implied he had critical information the voters needed to know about yet was not at liberty to share. He didn't. All the while he did have critical information on Trump's campaign and he had new evidence on Trump's campaign.

It seems to me we are in the midst of a major scandal. The Titanic is going down on its maiden voyage.