I hope the Stoner left some room on his back for a Trump portrait, as there are some very talented artists serving time in the fed system. Gotta make sure they get the hair just right, could take a while. On second thought, it might work better on his rear end, with the right perspective you could leave the natural opening to serve as the Trumpsters always puckered verbal orifice. That way, if anyone in the future wants to screw with him, he can offer the former POTUS as a substitute...
124
Why put a picture of this person in your article? This only confirms to him his image of his own self-proclaimed importance.
Let’s go with a year of not mentioning this person’s name or placing his image anywhere. He’ll only be surrounded by all of the mirrors in his small abode, where he can gawk at himself and proclaim that, “I am important!”
37
Did anyone else bother to see the CNN recorded FBI morning take down of the 66 year old Roger Stone and his wife? Riveting TV...ehhh?
I do not think either John Dillinger or Anne Frank ever got so much concentrated government firepower in securing their own respective their arrests.
9
I'm surprised Ms. Dowd made this mistake, in light of her knowledge of history and her D.C. roots, but yet: she refers to Richard Nixon's "impeachment." Nixon was never impeached: he resigned before the full House of Representatives could take that vote.
43
If Stone ever has to spend time in prison, he may come to regret that tattoo of Nixon spread across his back, not because the inmates are particularly political but because it may attract friends Stone doesn't want. Really, when you think about it, Stone is just a poser with a big mouth and a loud voice.
38
When America was Great, we called people like Stone, Trump and Cohn “lowlifes.” Trump didn’t win the Republican nomination because he was smarter than everyone, he won it because no one else was willing to lower themselves to that level. With them, everything is rigged, and everyone’s a sucker. Including you.
86
A crook's a crook for all that.
Carry on, Mr Mueller.
34
If Roy Cohen was Stone’s mentor, sleaze begat sleaze. As a young man tuned in to the McCarthy hearings on TV back then, only Cohen’s body language sitting aside the Senator was enough to portray evil. If this is Stone as well, let him get what he deserves, that Cohen was able to escape. I never met Cohen, yet there he is in a Bronx class picture of my elementary school PS 90 Bx as an 8th grader in 1942 in the class pictures gallery on BronxBoard.com. So it was he, eight years my senior, that stunk up a small corner of my otherwise wonderful neighborhood. Stanley Kubrick in the same photo probably lent it class and creativity.
24
Dirty tricks can’t work without suckers who want to believe there are barbarians at the gate and that their own misfortunes are at the hands of some secret cabal of elites and Jews who are the enemy of their way of life.
Unfortunately there are too many suckers and Stone, Manafort and Trump’s talent is their cynical willingness to fool then all for their own gain.
43
and where is Charlie Black in all this? he asked innocently.
2
Everyone scratching their heads wondering how we got to the disfunctional and self serving vs serving the people politics we are in now as well as how the heck did someone like Trump get elected - watch documentary "Get Me Roger Stone". If nothing else it will give you a better understanding of today as well as the urgency we should all feel to pass strong campaign and finance reform. We need to get back to a government for the people by the people... It also is a great example of why politics is not a spectator sport and needs constant nurtuting and involvement.
Tie this into the erosion of our "free press" and public schools and you'll see that we really are at a crossroads.
It's never too late to get involved.
25
Once the Republicans called themselves the party of Lincoln.
Now it's clear that they are indeed the party of Nixon.
46
'Dirty-tricksters' are like cockroaches: smash one and there are hundreds more hiding in the walls.
The media is already complicit emboldening the rest by allowing Stone to work his playbook: 'Never turn down an opportunity to have sex or appear on TV'.
16
Many years ago my hard-working, God-fearing, honest-as-the-day-is-long father told me "Politics is a dirty business". He could never have imagined then just how dirty. We do indeed need to take oour countru back from crooks and thieves like these. Let us hope that law enforcement is better than our current administration at serving the constitution and the citizens of this nation.
38
"As the owner of two Yorkies, Stone clearly knows how scary it is when a beloved dog is in harm’s way. When he emerged from court on Friday, he immediately complained that F.B.I. agents had “terrorized” his dogs when they came to arrest him at dawn at his home in Fort Lauderdale."
Stone is a psychopath but at least he never drove around with his Yorkies in a cage on the roof of his car.
Romney's poor Seamus is still in therapy.
And trump hates dogs!
16
"Stone-Cold Loser"
This headline overflows with double entendres which is applicable to Trump, Stone and the entire rock pile of losers. Brilliant!
I've been smiling since yesterday.
13
To quote: You live by the sword, you die by the sword.” That is especially true when you are the epitome of backstabber.
24
Paul Manafort and Roger Stone crossed the Rubicon, and went from just lying and cheating to what is starting to look like treason.
36
Stone, Trump, Bannon...jaw-dropping narcissists all. These “men” are not grown ups, they are elitists posing as disrupters. I’m sure Stone will find a way to get a tailored orange jumpsuit. Have fun “swinging” in prison, Roger.
34
As person who believes truth is for suckers and who will by his own admission say or do anything to get his way is just a white guy who is following the playbook of the Mafia. No honor in any of it. His screams in the press of "I'll never rat on Trump or testify against him" should be weighed against everything else he has ever said or done, which is nothing noble, nothing fair, nothing honest, nothing valiant, nothing smart and nothing moral. The most damaging thing you can say about Mr. Stone that he doesn't want to hear is that he is nothing. Nothing at all.
34
Trump chooses the best criminals.
47
Gee Mo no comments about the Oppo research paid for by the Clinton campaign dirty tricksters with the "Pee pee tapes" to be used against Trump. Or the fact that they conspired with the Russians to create them. Mo you use to tell stories about the underdogs, but hey I understand Bash Trump stories have helped you and your colleagues keep your scribe jobs. So you should stay on the side of the rest of the 90% bash Trump du jour journalists and you will get paid nicely. Just don't get it wrong like Buzz Feed and CNN did or you may get your see you later notice.
3
Stone and Manafort both have heads full of white hair without ever serving a day as POTUS. Trump need not worry, he’s never served a day either.
21
It is time for the trolling Stone to gather some moss in prison.
35
For the arrogant dude Roger Stone
A proud dirty trickster to the bone
I expect that his stench
Will be purged by the bench
Using statutes rather than cologne
22
You would think the way Roy Cohn's life ended: isolated, destitute, with agonizing pain and delusional, one might wonder why these Cohn acolytes didn't see his Faustian decline as a cautionary tale for their own lust for power and foreflushing, by continuing in deceitful and criminal acts.
Does greed make you stupid in the end? It would seem that this is so, since to succeed in that manner is a kind of drugged exstasy, but the price to pay when fate arrives to reconcile your accounts is that you have lost your connection to your true self. That is the real definition of hell.
41
@Max Cornise - How true.
5
Roger Stone is going to a Minimum Security Prison. End of story. Who's next?
6
Roger Stone, the Liberace of Politics.
Only without the smarmy charm.
19
And without the virtuosity
15
Nothing funnier than Michael Che on SNL last night taking about Stone's days seeking partners in swinger ads.
11
Another ridiculous old man with bizarre hair and leather skin eats up the news cycle with an over-heated opinion of himself. And I am not talking about DJT. Like his buddy in the White House, Roger Stone cares about nothing more that being provocative enough to inflame a press that will hang on his every word. The whole sleazy cabal that surrounds Trump are criminal to their core. Investigate them. Prosecute them. Jail them. And ignore them. Please.
39
This is exhibit A of those " deplorables" Hillary warned us about who supported Trump.
32
Cleaning the swamp has some very ugly, smelly tasks. Dealing with Stone is really scraping the bottom and digging into the sulfurous muck.
Good work Robert Mueller. "Lock him up." Stone is 66; let's put him away for at least 14 years 'til the best he can do is rant from his wheelchair.
26
I would have thought that, with her connections to the world of show business, Maureen Dowd might have caught the point that, as I believe, the Stone indictment's allegation that he engaged in obstruction and threatening a witness (comedian Randy Credico), will turn out to be a charge filled with"sound and fury signifying nothing." Why? Because when Stone said to Credico, "prepare to die" he was making a jocular reference to a famous quote from the beloved 1987 movie, "The Princess Bride," where Mandy Patinkin's character repeats this now famous warning repeatedly, ""Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." Even today friends often quote this "threat" among themselves as a humorous rebuff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24qcCD2Cskg
And Stone's other threat, "If you testify, I will take your dog." It's just a joke. The mutt which looks like it weighs about three pounds is Credico's service dog. That's a serious threat? Give me a break! He was kidding! That's what he does.
3
If Credico believes either statement to be a threat, then it is assault, and a felony. What is with these people who put everything in email? Email lives forever.
13
it will be interesting to see how stone reacts when he exchanges his double breasted suit for a orange jump suit, and faces serious jail time. will he continue to lie like his associate manafort or will he sing. my guess is the former.
4
Yorkies are known to be vicious and go for the jugular vein. That is perhaps the reason for FBI agents to cart away Roger Stone with heavy weapons drawn and canines purposely off screen with Mueller Team leaked tipped off CNN cameras clicking and only reporters seen frothing at the mouth.
2
Look at the bright side...
Someone finally got arrested in regard to Hillary's e-mails.
Bannon, Stone, Manafort, Cohen...who would want even ONE of these "people" as associates?
The belong to an exclusive club, along with Trump:
M orons
A nd
G rifters
A nonymous ( until caught).
Of course Stone will tattle. What old man yet has wanted to do time for Trump....Even a grifter/loser like Stone can see how Trump treats people who do anything for him....Trump squats over them eventually and lets fly.
I give it a week. Trump will throw this guy under the bus.
Gray bars, a sickly wife at home, stupendous pending legal bills that may bankrupt him...why on earth at his age would he do anything but save his own skin? YOu can't get on TeeVee once you are in prison. People forget you in a heartbeat. He'll just be another old man who will die behind bars.
Who ended the shutdown? Wilbur Ross ( another "best and brightest). People should thank him.
Ross, and the Air Traffic Controllers.
If there had been an airplane crash on Trump's shutdown, there was no way Trump could guarantee all the victims would be Democrats, so Trump had to end it.
15
Stone will roll over and it won't be the first time.
13
Nixon, from his grave: "Don't worry, Roger, I've got your back!"
30
It appears not to be an item of discussion that those who associate with Stone are themselves by that connection losers. Both Nixon and Trump damaged American democracy through a pernicious lying approach to politics as a confidence game. Stone merely abetted them, like the monkey for the organ grinder. He grins and grimaces, holding out his little begging cup, to attract a crowd and shill them.
7
No Stone shall be left unturned.
9
Trump may yet win in 2020 because whoever the Democratic nominee is, Dowd probably will obsessively attack him or her in order to maintain her maverick schtick. She did that with Hillary Clinton. Clinton should be president right now. Dowd, in her way, helped prevent it. Too little, too late for Dowd to be complaining of Trump.
25
Stone and Manafort.
Infamous lobbyist representing the most odious clients, dictators, murderous rulers, and Donald trump.
What did they see in him that they immediately said, "that's our man, we know how to sell this!"?
10
A note to the NYT's editors and for the NYT stylebook, as the same error is repeated over and over in the NYT's various stories and columns (such as this one) on the Russian interference on the 2016 election:
The DNC and Clinton campaign staff's emails were "stolen", not "hacked". Also, "Wikileaks" should always be referred to as a "Russian intelligence cutout", not by itself as some sort of neutral news entity. Finally, the Russians did not "meddle" in the election, they "interfered" in it.
As the respected media critic, Kathleen Hall Jameson, noted in "Cyberwar", her excellent media analysis of the 2016 election, the news media deliberately chose to use softer and more neutral terms such as "hacked" and "meddled" to describe the Russian government's activity, in order to soften the impact of its ethically questionable decision to publish the stolen emails.
As we now know, the French and German media, when confronted with the same ethical dilemma in their election coverage, of whether or not to publish document dumps of stolen materials, chose not to publish them, on the simple moral ground that they were stolen.
Language counts.
32
Doh! Dark arts are always .... dark. The question is why does it take so long to get these creeps behind bars and keep them there for their lying cruelty?
7
Trump and his gang of thugs would be history if not for the Republicans in Congress. That's where the problem lies. And why do the Republicans prop Trump up?
Fear of the loss of White Privilege.
16
Russians own them, suites in Moscow await the rabbits, but apparently no heating.
6
When visiting clients, I stay away from these politically charged conversations. On Friday, after the news broke about Roger Stone, I was sitting at a desk in an office with two people discussing the events outside the door. Both are Republicans. I know the male dislikes Trump vehemently and is facing me. The woman, who listens to shock radio all day and swears at what she hears, has her back to me. I am trying to focus on my work and she is trying to pull me into the conversation which I diplomatically resist. The male says "the noose is tightening around Trump as he is surrounded by people that have been indicted and convicted, he has to be associated and eventually he is going down". The woman's only response was to deflect with comments that Hillary is a murderer and anyone in the White House that questioned the Clinton's ended up dead. I was rolling my eyes but her back was to me, he was trying to keep a straight face. When she left and she was out of earshot he called her an idiot. Denial may be a survival tactic but it is also a dangerous thing. If FOX news was not spewing their lies and toned down their rhetoric we might see the numbers change. But so long as FOX news is providing the only news to all of the Rust Belt and the Fly Over states those polls numbers will stick and that is a dangerours thing. The decision for president in 2020 rests with the swing voters. Whether Trump is still president rests on the shoulders of denial supporters.
15
Good riddance to bad rubbish, as the saying goes. Maybe there is such a thing as Karma. The sad thing is that Stone has been operating in the shadows since he was 19 and is a menace to our freedoms. Perhaps he will be bitten by the dog of comeuppance finally.
11
Besides, "deny, deny, deny", the more apt terms now are "Whine, snivel, whine"; in other words "guilty, guilty", guilty", I write with glee.
8
There surely are many bad dudes to bemoan,
among them the ridiculous fop Roger Stone.
Their motives quite dark, and their actions nefarious,
If not so destructive, they'd be just hilarious.
A clown car? Too small. They could fill a large train.
But it's not just the con job that causes me pain.
I'm hyper competitive, I don't mind being tested,
And I'll graciously yield when I know I've been bested.
By someone who's better, whether athletics or darts,
I'll bow in defeat to great strength, skill or smarts.
But this group offends by their utter stupidity,
They're clumsy and crude, driven by the coarsest cupidity
If we have to face evil, at least get it right,
And have villains of merit, who are clever and bright.
Manafort, Cohen, and yes, mostly Trump,
Are not only nasty, they're dumb as a stump.
12
I'd like to see a full list of all dirty tricks done in the service of Richard Nixon. I would be astounding and revelatory to many. We love wealth so much, here in America, we forgive recurrent sins of dishonor and corruption in blind allegiance to 'the economy, stupid'. Complicit in our own fall.
Thank God for the last election: hope and compassion and sanity lives.
11
I can understand why a sleaze such as Roger Stone is rich. I'm sure lots of Republican politicians paid him to help them get elected. After all, the only thing that counts in Republican world is winning.
What I don't understand is why this despicable human being is a media darling. Are you telling me that there is no one more worthy of attention? Or are you infatuated with the evil this man represents?
Or is it that I am sick to death of hearing about these horrible people and how they are destroying our democracy but are still walking around free? I want it to be over!!
13
I saw a photo yesterday of Stone and Nixon when Nixon supposedly "won" the first election but can't find the link.
It was a close-up shot of the two crazies grinning like the horrible, evil people they are/were. Please post a link if you have one. The world needs to see what corruption and demented greed look like.
7
OT, looking forward to your brother's annual column. How does he like his "crow" served?
3
It's interesting to note that the NYT has devoted several columns to the arrest of Roger Stone, but is silent -- crickets -- about the verbal hiding that the US took for its actions and statements regarding Venezuela in the UNSC yesterday ... full videos of the debate are available via Google.
8
It's winter, we're emerging from a 35 shutdown and indictments and prison terms continue to develop.
May we soon have a column about something joyful?
3
I was watching a video on YouTube by the "fully charged show" about electric cars in Amsterdam. It was so joyous and relaxed. Three men, talking, and getting along fine. Nobody trying to out do the other guy or call the other guy an idiot.
And Amsterdam is just beautiful in the background of the video.
Could three guys in the U.S. have a friendly, relaxed, conversation about anything.
The video was a pleasure to watch. And I have little interest in electric boats and cars.
2
I am amazed ! With all of this information at her fingertips tell me again why Ms. Dowd chose to lavishly enable Birther Donald Trump through the primaries and The Election of '16. Apparently her seething anger and vindictive feelings toward Hillary Clinton overcame the minute bit of better judgement she might have once had; the complete suspension of all critical thinking.
Whatever can be said about Hillary Clinton she in no way the grifter and foul-mouthed thing that is DJ Trump.
22
Love the lead photo. The pinky ring says it all.
Roger Stone is a student of not only Richard Nixon’s Watergate braggadocio—"I was not lying. I said things that later on seemed to be untrue.”—but of Machiavelli’s “The Prince,” where to be good is to act merrily giddily happily bad—“The reason I’m a Nixonite is his indestructibly. He never quit.”
But Stone makes glorious and laughable error. Nixon did quit. He lost, for a bad man living in living in a bad house will come to inevitable ruin. Only element missing to his ruin is timing.
“Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are not good. Hence a prince who wants to keep his authority must learn how not to be good, and use that knowledge, or refrain from using it, as necessity requires.”
― Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince
6
Aptly titled hit job for a mob boss. The similarities to organized crime bosses and every key player with 6 degrees of separation to our president is no accident. The pedigree of these malcontents like The Roger start with dysfunctional families, a stunted emotional relationship with immediate peers, an oversized opinion of themselves, a contempt of legitimate mores and norms and on and on. But the dog reference commonality is rich and hits the problem with these people on the head. Men who cannot connect with humility toward fellow human beings are wounded for life. Their connection to animals is their only saving grace. Our president has surrounded himself with fellow sociopaths. It's time to reboot.
7
@george
Our so-called "President" doesn't even like dogs or other sentient beings.
4
@george
But Trump doesn't have a dog so no saving grace there! Nada!
5
Has Stone ever done so much as one day’s honest work in his life? Must be one of those Swamp Creatures Trump was supposed to be going after.
8
The National Enquirer, Dancing With the Stars, The Apprentice, the New York Times, Breitbart and the Republican Party have joined forces. The merged organization now produces an elaborate piece of performance art called the United States of America, starring Donald J. Trump, with a large cast of yammering supporting characters - Stephen Miller, Mitch McConnell, ‘The Mooch’ and ‘Omarosa,’ Roger Stone, Sean Hannity, Alex Jones, Ann Coulter, Don Jr., Sean Spicer, Tom Price, Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, Stormy Daniels, Kellyanne Conway, Rudy Giuliani, Melania, Judge Jeanine... dang, ‘The Poseidon Adventure’ didn’t have a cast of washed up ‘stars’ that could come anywhere near this star studded galaxy of blathering celebs.
It’s infotainment at its finest. Great ratings! And with a boffo Democratic halftime show! All that young talent gathered on the field!
When the show’s over, can we talk about health care, child care, housing, transit, infrastructure, education, energy and the environment (including that pesky ol’ climate change thing), toxic income and wealth inequality, rampant gun violence, epidemic drug addiction and death by overdose... maybe even a rational conversation about immigration. I mean I know that stuff is no fun, deadly dull, but somebody has to do it, one of these days.
Soon. Before the waters rise and there’s oceanfront property for sale in Newark.
10
You would have thought he had a rebel Army armed to the teeth. If only the FBI went after potential school shooters the same way. This is so sad for our country. The world is officially insane.
3
Better yet, indict, prosecute and convict them. And then we can all admire their orange jumpsuits.
4
Slogan for all Democrats and members of the Trump resistance:
Make America CLEAN again!!
5
I don't care about Roger Stone or Donald Trump. Impeach him. Our country is being run by reality TV actors and children.
But I do care about dogs. Our's is a mutt. A rescue dog not a fluffy, therapy angel. The term therapy dog is completely over used. I write this with all due respect to those people who need their dog by their side every minute just to survive. But since when did every flight have at least one or two therapy dogs in the cabin?
2
Yep, Mo managed to work the Clinton name into her column about Roger Stone. It's her calling. When Trump starts a nuclear war and we are all in our bunkers, Mo will find a way to report on what the Clintons are doing.
12
It is shocking, the idea that Melania is looking at her husband’s friends and thinking that she is among respectable people.
7
People like Stone will always be with us - hardcore, boorish haters with no respect for civil society, norms or mores. Personally, I find him as wretched as he is distastefully and deplorably caddish.
Prison would be a fine resting spot for Roger and his ilk.
9
And what was the reason for the FBI storming his house with guns drawn? 17 vehicles? Are they that afraid of an old man?
4
Stone is nothing more than a Political "Groupie" who will make millions off this meaningless arrest when he writes the book just prior to President Trump's re-election in 2020.
1
What's good about Wikileaks info is the truth came out about Hillary. You and Democrats don't want to address that.
5
Stone, like Trump is indeed a Stone-Cold loser. However, Ms. Dowd beat the email issue to death so these two could grift their way into the White House.
6
One of the worst things about America as seen by our European allies is that we have people in this country who are famous for being absolutely useless and talentless. Roger Stone is at the top of this odious heap , and while he would probably think that his true vocation is about beating the system, it appears that the system is finally beating him not unlike the way it defeated his longtime idol , Richard Nixon.
In the final analysis these are individuals who feel that they are above the law. They are scavengers and predators and deserve to be made an example of so that in the future somebody who thinks that they can become famous for being an absolute loser ( and a criminal ) will think twice.
I saw this man displaying his virtuosic doublespeak with Chris Cuomo on CNN; clearly he thinks that most of the country is unutterably stupid and cannot possibly understand what a fraud he is .
And while Roger Stone will no doubt never read this blog, he will eventually learn , whether he likes it or not that there are quite a few intelligent people left in the US who see him for exactly what he is.
7
Yes, a cold Stone which lights up a fire for the Big Man.
3
A T- Shirt with "Rape" and Bill Clinton's name, sounds like something Ross and you would like to have. The reader should always keep in mind as you unearth just how sordid the Trump junta has always been that you preferred this offal to Hilary Clinton during the election. Even afterward it took more than a year for you to kick the habit of including a dig at Hilary in every column. In 2020 we will undoubtedly have a Democratic candidate who used to smoke Marijuana or maybe got more than their share of parking tickets. Trump will take anything so that his cult can call for them to be locked up. My question is whether the press, and especially Mrs Dowd, will follow Trump's lead and make the whole campaign one where the press asks "what about the parking tickets"while Trump conspires with dictators and organized crime figures to rule for four more years.
19
"Do whatever you have to do to get what you want; playing by the rules is for suckers."
This so perfectly sums up the life of our so-called president. But eventually a life of bad karma catches up with you. We shall see what is yet to unfold. Manafort's hair has been turning white as his clock winds down and I've noticed the orange poof is getting whiter and thinner.
10
Roger Stone's creed of "Do whatever you have to do to get what you want; playing by the rules is for suckers." hardly seems like somone the President would want as a friend or close associate. This creed speaks volumes about moral and ethical bankruptcy in the Oval Office.
2
I think we need to pass a law forbidding vice presidents from pardoning their president. If you take a look at the David Frost interview with Nixon, it is clear he never really repented except to the extent PR required it.
8
Please write to your Senators at senate.gov and ask them to attend the annual reading of George Washington’s “Farewell Address”.
Ask them to pay particular attention to Washington’s thoughts on faction:
“They serve to organize faction; to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community...”
3
Stone will always have work as long as the Republican party exists. lock him up.
10
“Hate is a stronger motivator than love,” Stone told the documentarians. “Human nature has never changed.”
This is the basic attitude of an evil person.
6
The penultimate sentence was worth the whole article. Great quip!
1
Remember the halcyon days when preachers like Jimmy Swaggert and Jim Baker were arrested and imprisoned for leading people astray? Flimflam men and their followers stay the same.
3
Well, he has contributed heavily to ruining my country, so the least he can offer me is a good martini-olive tip.
How amazing it would be if such minds as Stone's wanted to make an honest living.
3
Is this what it takes for the Republicans to win an election?
6
It's all a nightmare that we experience even in daylight. The only way to rid ourselves of it is to vote out DJT in 2020. This means every single decent person in America who's concerned about our country MUST go to the polls. There is no way to persuade his base about the truth of him.
8
There just is no shortage of slim in this country. As for the love of rancid dictators, the US government has had a long love affair with those sorts. We love to point fingers at those we deem more amoral than us, but we are now at the top of decay.
3
I've long thought that the celebrations over the putative triumph of democracy and the Constitution over Nixon were astonishingly misplaced. Nothing has been done to reform the two Parties, election financing, Congressional venality and corruption, gerrymandering, voter suppression, and the roles of dirty money and dirtier tricks. Unpopular and dishonest presidents from Reagan to Bush pulled the usual stunts of orchestrating international conflicts and mobilizing the military, caring not a jot that they threw Central America and the Middle East into chaos for a generation in order to improve their polling numbers. There's no collective memory: Johnson lied about North Vietnamese aggression to expand the war, Nixon lied about pretty much everything, Reagan supported the importation of Colombian cocaine to finance his illegal wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua, Bush Senior lied about Noriega and bombed Panama City as a prelude to bombing Iraq, Clinton dropped uranium enriched bombs on the hapless Serbs, Bush Junior lied about the role of Afghanistan in 9/11 and told complete whoppers about the threat to world security posed by Saddam. So nothing has changed: an opportunistic liar in the White House & a thoroughly corrupt political system. A Republican challenger for the nomination, impeachment or a return to Democratic party rule won't make any difference. Major reforms to improve accountability and strengthen democratic norms are desperately needed.
6
"The pair has given practicing the dark arts a bad name."
When did practicing the dark arts ever have or deserve a good name?
1
She’s making a joke implying how beyond bad they are.
I always enjoy reading Maureen Dowd, her wit, poetic jabbs, she is sharp as a knife. Almost writes like a Surrealists, Dadaists.
She nails Stone as a trickster, con man, a dirty enabler.
But just remember she gave Trump the stage in sometimes a positive light before the election of 2016, like alot of media.
She didn't see how dangerous Trump, Stone were.
America has rock bottom.
I hope next time Dowd and the media don't blow with the political wind and find us in this absurd reality we face ourselves with today.
14
I swore off Dowd for that reason and have assiduously avoided her since. But I’m glad I checked back in today to see she’s still got some excellent tricks up her sleeve. I have to confess that listening to her book Are Men Really Necessary? on a long drive I took years ago kept me wide awake and laughing the whole way. She is a clever one, even if she had a couple sketchy years there.
4
The crime of treason needs to be redefined. If what most of us believe is true, our whole country has been stabbed in the back (see Ding Darling's editorial cartoon, December 1941, Des Moines Register) by our own so-called President. All the President's Men, indeed.
4
IF Trump really wanted to see Hiliary arrested, he should have just hired her for his campaign
8
Just saw him on This Week.
He gave something away. I haven't actually watched him be interviewed before so maybe I am wrong, but this morning he revealed that he is not the clown he portrays himself as so frequently in public and that he is a facile liar making bold accusations against the Special Counsel's office.
His voice and demeanor showed there is a lot more too him than the loudmouth who seems a bit dim character he so often plays up.
I think that works against his MO of acting a clown so others do not take him too seriously.
It's always a pleasure to watch these "tough guys" dressed up in natty suits turn into quivering lumps once the law has finally caught up with them.
5
I find it hard to imagjne that The New York Times believes it's a greater crime to leak candidate Hillary Clinton's emails that were kept on an unsecured private server than it is to leak the Pentagon Papers, which were very much kept on secured servers.
Nixon's only crime in Watergate was to try to find the source of those leaks, something current special prosecutor Robert Mueller is being commissioned to do.
looks like the ship is finally leaving the sinking rats
Is there a media blackout on photos of Manafort's white hair? A google search returns a brown haired man. If CNN covers the court hearing, why do they use the old mug shot and not a current photograph.
Somehow, I don't imagine the media is entirely honorable in presenting things the way they are.
Isn't that what got these crooks elected in the first place?
3
When is the press going to get this right? Richard Nixon was not impeached. Impeachment proceedings were started but Nixon resigned before he was impeached.
10
There is only one reason Stone used the infamous Nixon victory pose after his arrest. He has already been assured a pardon by Trump. He acts like he and Trump were victorious in conning the electorate and undermining the 2016 election. Unless and until Mueller adds charges for treason or conspiring against the US to Stone's indictment , Stone will continue to act like someone who can openly flaunt the rule of law.
There is 50 years of GOP corruption that is embodied in roger Stone. The indictments are just the tip of the iceberg. State charges need to be added as well.
13
I know America well enough to realize that Trump, Stone and the GOP are not typical of America and the are far from your best and brightest. I was 20 when Nixon was elected and was perplexed because I could not understand why a nation would make such a blunder when it was making steady progress in the betterment of all citizens decided that dressing up in the patriotism of scoundrels was far more important than the road to democracy.
When Reagan was elected I knew America was over. I knew who Reagan was in the early 50s and who he was as Governor of California and I knew the future would not be kind. America was never perfect, perfection is not part of this world but America till Reagan always believed in creating a more perfect union. That is what made America great. What you call conservatism is a betrayal of America its ethics and values and above all else it is a dagger in the heart of creating a more perfect union.
America has betrayed too many of its best for short term gain at the expense of long term pain. I don't know if America is ready for truth and reconciliation. I don't know if America is ready to apologize to men of character and vision like Jimmy Carter, Al Gore, John Kerry and Barack Obama. I don't know because 200 years ago Thomas Chandler Haliburton said, "When a man is wrong and won't admit it, he always gets angry." and America is very very angry.
21
It's the road to Fascism. in slow motion so most people don't even notice
7
Hate is not stronger, it is louder and draws attention. Love is deeper and more inclusive.
19
Exactly. I believe love always wins!
2
Fear is stronger, and it's what underpins hate.
1
The problem is not the men perpetrating the dog whistles, etc. It's the dogs following those whistles.
19
After seeing what happened with the Cohen raid I would think that this guy would have rid himself of all his electronics. Whether he did or not we need to pray it didn't work and Mueller will find what he needs to find.
10
A good novelist could not conjure up a scenario like what we are living through in this country now. It would be so unbelievable, critics would give it negative comments.
History books will describe us much like the Roman Empire. I do hope we survive the charlatan in the WH and his merry group of thieves and liars. How did our country fall this far from its principles? Where do we begin to repair the damage if it isn't too late? Will there be a USA as we knew it just a short 2 1/2 years ago? When our beloved and remarkable last president showed such class over the terrible treatment of the opposition, didn't people notice? I guess not enough of them did. I'm an old lady and I pray that my grand children will have the life that this country gave to my immigrant parents.
19
So maybe we've gotten to the bottom of the barrel. But as a friend of mine keeps reminding me, 'You gotta look under the barrel.'
13
I love it whenever I hear Trump supporters carry on about Mueller not having anything on Trump because his investigation is taking so long. "If he had something, he'd a said somethin' by now!" is the common refrain, as if he's been searching in vain all this time. They don't realize that the reason Mueller is taking so long is that he's been finding SO MUCH, he's having a hard time keeping up!
15
I guess we are supposed to be outraged that Stone’s dogs were terrorized by the FBI. Anyone who lives with small dogs knows how easily they can be “terrorized”. Just a friend dropping by for a visit will do the trick.
9
I hope stone gets what he richly deserves and perhaps Trump will join him soon, Unless there are consequences for immoral and unethical behavior others will continue to follow their path.
6
You forgot illegal.
5
Justice. We need strong justice for these con men and criminals like Stone and Trump. Or there’s no stopping them.
10
Stone has always wanted to be treated like a rock star. If he comes clean on what he knows about collusion with Russia he may become an honorary Rolling Stone. As in rolling over on Trump.
5
Does Donald Trump associate with and/or admire one person - just 1 person - I could look to emulate in any manner? One person that I can describe as someone that is living a life the best he/she can, making mistakes, but trying to be a better person?
7
I simply want to point out that if ethically-challenged people like Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, and Roy Cohn are "friends" and role models of the president of the United States then the country is being run by an administration of "questionable" allegiances.
Is it an administration governed by the rule of law or an administration of outlaws who follow no rules?
When will enough be enough Congress? When will enough be enough GOPers? When will enough be enough America?
870
@Lalo
The beginning of it being enough will be when Trump's poll numbers show less than 86% approval by Republicans, which is what the latest NBC poll shows. That number, coming post-shutdown, is a stunning revelation.
104
@Lalo I totally agree and I cannot wait until Trump is taken down, too, and he will be. He has hurt this country so much - he has absolutely no shame.
76
There have been plenty of shady presidential pals in other administrations. We can't ignore past behavior but it would be wrong to assume wrongdoing without actual evidence.
Let's see how well this indictment holds up and what, if any, effect it could have had on the White House.
17
The ghost of Nixon past still haunts us. Just when you thought it was safe to trust our democracy, we get the Nixon salute and see his face on Stone’s back, just not quite low enough, in my opinion.
The president was bad enough, but now it looks as though he’s merely the apex of a vast pyramid scheme so vile and full of duplicity that only Betsy DeVos could fully appreciate it. But it’s clear that the president didn’t accomplish his takeover on his own. He was socially promoted to a position higher than he could have ever reached without dirty tricks, lies and conspiracies galore.
If today’s events aren’t disgusting enough, we’re even picking up echoes of Roy Cohen. There’s even a faint whiff of Joseph McCarthy that you can just make out while watching the nightly news. It recalls a time when powerful people weaponized fear and ignorance, and nearly turned us into animals at each others throats.
We can only hope that people who voted for the president were among those fearful of going broke during the government shutdown. You can talk to people all day about why an unread, crotch-groping narcissistic moron is not a good candidate for president of the United States, but until they feel it in their guts, and their wallets, they’ll never fully understand.
Do we have your attention now? Have you taken note of the sleazy, lying manipulators who manufactured this presidency with your help?
Mueller might undo some of the damage, but it's up us not to let it happen again.
2606
@gemli
Yes indeed. It's also up to us to try to fix it, not just get through it, or it will happen again.
101
@gemli Not only did we get the Nixon salute but we also got the bare midriff. Very difficult to unsee that.
85
@gemli-Agreed. I don't think Trump is bright enough to deliver the damage the government and beyond. The people pulling the strings need to be outed, prosecuted, and serve their time.
129
I am always just surprised that Trump brought the names of Roy Cohn and Richard Nixon back into the public eye without any shame whatsoever. I'm not shocked by Trump's lack of shame but by all the Trump flunkies thinking that these two criminals were fine names to be associated with.
417
@MomT,
I think Gerald Ford's poor decision to pardon Nixon, thus negating any chance to indict him ending any hope of finding more crimes committed by him and his administration, still emanates today. It shows another reason to not impeach Trump but to oust him in the 2020 election so that he may be indicted on several charges including treason. To impeach Trump and forcing his resignation only opens the door to the same travesty of justice when President Pence (gag) pardons Trump.
42
I have used Watergate II to friends and family telling them that the GOP has engaged the dark arts, voter suppression and Russian interference in order to win and retain control.
How right I was....Manafort, Stone and Lee Atwater were the bad boys that tried to defend Nixon at every turn....now 2 of the 3 have turned up in electing Drumpf.
The price of ignorance is the degradation of the rule of law and the corruption of the government and our institutions.
What's more only half of the American people think Robert Mueller is being fair...again, the price of ignorance.
Yes, Thomas Grey the 18th century poet was right: In ignorance there is truly bliss.
6
Why the sympathy for the nature in which Stone was arrested? Even that didn't curtail his arrogance. This isn't his first rodeo into having a negative, destructive ride into the electoral process. This was his ultimate nefarious coup and he took great pride in his achievement. Trump has surrounded himself with the best self serving opportunist and morally depraved individuals in US history. As Trump would say: " If you a listening. " Justice, FBI or CIA withdraw the security clearances of the 30 people who were issued one despite failing due to posing a risk.
246
The schoolyard bully never goes away. They become hustlers and savor humiliating and ripping off everyone and especially if they can get close to a rich predator who will give them money. Stone is like the monitor fish who attach themselves to sharks. Eventually a new generation arrives and the old bullies are busted and end up in prison. Stone believes he's unusual and will get a pass or maybe serve 18 months in a deluxe Federal prison and write a book that Netflix will film. Why shouldn't he believe that? Gradually Americans are realizing what Trump/Pence are really about and just as Joe McCarthy, Adam Clayton Powell, Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew were booted, Trump, Pence and maybe Mitch McConnell will get the boot from a new generation.
365
@David Fairbanks
I agree that we need fewer McConnels and more Pelosis in our bicameral legislature.
Add Kevin McCarthy, Steve Scalise, and any Freedom Caucus for the receiving end of boots.
44
Roger Stone is akin to one of those characters who work in the inky shadows of a John Le Carré novel. They have their purpose in pushing the plot forward and in the end they get killed off. Hopefully this is the end for Mr. Stone.
11
Roger Stone has always been at the fringes of what's legal. I am relieved to know that America's justice system is still operating through this dark period. With any luck, Donald "The Cave-Man" Trump will see that continuing to duck and hide from the law will not serve him. He should surrender to Mueller as he did to Pelosi. It could make America respectable again.
12
Stone doesn't deserve our time. He along with Trump are a bunch of sleazy lowlifes who don't belong anywhere near the White House.
49
I have nothing to add to these many wonderful comments, except this: another of Maureen's useful vocabulary words of the day, which I had to look up
meretricious: "apparently attractive but having in reality no value or integrity"
How many CEOs and politicians does this word apply to?
Except I would say Trump, McConnell, Wilbur Ross, Stephen Miller, and a host of other Trump aides, appointees, and Mueller indictees clearly do not quality for "apparently attractive."
But the last part of the definition applies to the entire Trump administration, campaign indictees, and almost all of the GOP politicians.
31
@PB
"Meretricious" gets it's apparent value by context. Without surrounding itself with supporting con-glam it can't be pulled off and just looks ridiculous. That's why Trump attracts like.
1
Great, just what Stone needs, more publicity and mention of his tastes in clothes. Ignore him and his benefactors like the president, it’s what they deserve and fear most.
Personally, I can’t wait until we have a week in which there isn’t a news story about Trump’s latest inane tweet. Or Stone’s attempts to undermine our democracy.
24
Raiding and arresting Stone the way it was only elevates him in the eyes of his "fans" and himself. it gives him an outsized sense if importance and yet another forum for his perpetual 15 minutes of Fame. Better to have sent a Prius Uber to take him to his arraignment.
11
@Keevin
It was a legitimate amount of force they had the authority to use. He seems to have missed the point of it.
2
The common thread among these folks is the they allowed "Money be their master, and they are the servants" making bad, unethical decisions, one after another all for the quest for more money. So sad that they lost their way, their dignity, and their souls.
17
If a passenger on a flight behaves like a reckless, dangerous madman, it’s the airline’s obligation to have him removed. People should not waste energy spewing insults and claiming disbelief at the existence of people like Stone and Trump. The one and only culprit is the Republican Party. It opened the door and fueled this conspiracy of malicious insanity. They are the party that not only did not remove the rowdy passengers, they also gave them upgrades to first class.
53
@Daniel B
First Class? They put djt in the pilot’s seat...
3
Always nice to see an upbeat article about Roger Stone.
7
I didn’t realize, until I watched “Get Me Roger Stone” that Ronald Reagan used the “make America great again” line at his rallies. More Roger Stone? And I wonder if Trump even knows that his rallying cry had been used before?
18
There is a joke making the rounds that Trump's next book will be titled "The Art of the Plea Deal." Stone might want to get a copy.
40
An especially delicious dish this one is, Maureen Dowd--thank you.
Might I venture the suggestion that Stone's world is not quite "dog-eat-dog" but rather one characterized by a dog's relation to a fire hydrant [or to a patch of grass in a neighbor's backyard]. Perhaps that canine sense of superiority and entitlement goes some way toward explaining the magnetic attraction between Stone and the other infamous hound whose dangerous ambitions he did so much to encourage [the Hump Brothers, let's call them].
4
Thank you, Maureen! I learned the word meretricious in the best possible environment!
10
Here's an interesting connection for you:
"[Stone] co-founded the National Conservative Political Action Committee, which spent money in support of candidates, including Chuck Grassley, of Iowa. [In Reagan's 1980 re-election campaign], Stone, who was in his late twenties, became political director of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.”
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/06/02/the-dirty-trickster
And in today's NYT, we read that Justice Thomas' wife, Ginni, met with Trump in the WH Roosevelt Room on Thursday, apparently upset that Trump hasn't hired sufficiently ideological far-right zealots. This is the woman who famously phoned Anita Hill demanding she apologize to her husband.
"In 2011 she formed a government affairs firm called Liberty Consulting, which drew criticism for boasting on its website that Ms. Thomas would use her “experience and connections” to help clients. More recently, she hired as an assistant a woman fired by the conservative group Turning Point USA for texting a colleague a year earlier that 'I HATE BLACK PEOPLE.' She has also drawn criticism for sharing social media posts promoting conspiracy theories."
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/26/us/politics/trump-ginni-thomas-meeting.html
Ironic, isn't it, that Stone is perhaps the one common thread connecting Clarence Thomas' SCOTUS appointment (made by Reagan) then, and Brett Kavanaugh's appointment today (Chuck Grassley chairs the SJC), along with Gorsuch's stolen seat via Trump's election.
40
@David Walker
GHW Bush nominated Thomas, not Regan.
1
George H. W. Bush nominated Justice Thomas.
1
FYI: Reagan ran for reelection in 1984, not 1980.
1
Ms. Dowd is always an interesting read, but the outrage is a bit rich. Seems duplicitous to decry when the fire rages while the embers have been smoldering for years.
There’s an obvious disgust of politics, the media that covers it and the clearly iniquitous element that colors it all. It’s always had that flavor, but the change in how we give and receive news now makes it seems seem so much worse, like a film that can’t be easily showered off.
It sometimes is hard to tell what’s worse: the news, the greed and corruption in business and government or the crowd that piles on every time a story meets out its own form of justice.
2
While I disagree completely with Mr Stone’s philosophy, strategy & friends I must state that his edict about never wearing a button down shirt with a double breasted jacket is entirely correct. A button down shirt is a casual, sporting shirt, first invented to keep the dollar points down during fox hunting. The double breasted jacket if a suit is a formal outfit, even more so than a single breasted jacket. Say what one will about Stone, he does dress well!
2
Let’s see how he good looks in an orange jumpsuit!
1
Trump will resign when the time comes saying he needs to fight the Mueller indictments, and Mike Pence will become president.
Trump will face an enormous number of serious charges, but Pence will pardon Trump in return for a promise of substantial financial support from (possibly) the Russians, and others, in the 2020 election.
7
One of the most chilling pieces of information to come out of this is that "Build the Wall" came directly from Stone, and even Trump was initially reluctant. So how much more of "Trump" is concocted by other unelected actors? Possibly most of it. I do get the attraction of Trump for certain groups that feel themselves disempowered, to align psychologically with a charismatic figure who can make them feel, as a mass, all powerful. This is complicated by the fact that certain members of this population are actually disempowered because the myth that they are responsible for their disempowerment collides up against the sheer reality that the forces behind DT (republicans) are fanatically committed to these very forces of disempowerment, while others in the group are in fact empowered, socially and ecenomically, by these very same forces. Creators of the Trump myth ( Stone, Bannon, etc.,) know how to stoke the fears and exploit the dormant prejudices and potential for dysfuctional thinking in both groups. What l find hopedul is democrats beginning to find the potential of authentic plain speaking (as opposed to dumbing down) to articulate the danger looming from the other side, and for once they seem competently united in this, despite authentic differences
9
Roger Stone, Lee Atwater, Rove, Manafort and dozens of lesser known Republican operatives backed by the mega billionaires such as the Koch Brothers are today's Republican Party. Trump is only the most visible official they have put into Office. The policies that they urge are immoral.
Power and federal sanctioned looting are their goals. Hopefully, the Mueller probe will send dozens of them to prison and create a political environment where the rest are shunned by ethical Republicans, of which many still exist.
Regardless of whether the Justice Department can do any significant cleansing, the Democrats must enact HR 1, the recently enacted political ethics and reform act once they regain control of both the Executive and Legislative branches.
39
@ Pat Choate - ‘Ethical Republicans’? Where? Name a few, other than the ones who have resigned, retired or joined the Democratic Party.
3
@Pat Choate Let's hope they catch up with the Podesta brothers.
Roger Stone is not in jail yet and if history is any judge there is little chance that he will be. He has been injecting fraud and lies into Republican campaigns for 40 years and he has never seen a day in jail. His mantra to “deny, deny, deny” is based on the very real fact that wealth can outlast justice in our legal system and that the “will to power” is more effective than democratic morality in the battlefield of politics.
What he demonstrates is the usefulness of deception in a country with mediocre educational standards and a politicized mass media that has trained the people to respond to dog whistles of every political persuasion. He shows that our justice system does not just turn a blind eye to white collar crime but that it is crippled enough to aid and abet political crime when conducted from a high office. We all see everyday that yes, some of us are actually above the law, and todays political criminals have no respect for the people they are robbing and absolutely no fear of being caught. They act as if there will never be a day of reckoning because in our lifetimes there never has been. The Nixon resignation was a long time ago and since then the criminal reigns of Reagan and Cheney have laid down markers of malfeasance that have formed the pattern of modern Republican statecraft. The law has been beaten before by the coordinated assault of the forces of the rich and we have to hope that this time law and morality will win. But the odds are against us.
62
It seems that our political system is the sorting hat that casts the likes of Stone, Nixon, North, Trump, into the highest positions of power in the country. That it does, says more about us than it does about these people.
22
In his act of bravado, Stone may be expecting a pardon. He may have a long wait from his prison cell while Trump waits for the early morning knock at his door and "Open up, FBI!" RIP Roger.
13
Yes and even if granted a pardon, he can still be compelled to testify without 5th Amendment protection, compelling him to tell all that he knows under threat of contempt or perjury charges
17
I just watched the movie "Get Me Roger Stone." He'd be a good choice to write a strong foreward with contemporary political comments on "Mein Kampf."
Despite his mixed successes, he's sold his soul to the devil in a Faustian bargain. I admire Mueller for bringing this loathsome character to justice. A very interesting story about a man not to emulate, but to recognize because his type will surface again and again in history.
JCT
38
There must be something special in Trump's DNA that he is able to befriend so many sleazy operators. In my forty year career working and managing in different types of organizations and in all my social engagements, I have never met a Roger Stone type figure. Admittedly, I have worked and met individuals whose personalities and even ethical standards were somewhat borderline, but, never the level of sleaze of a Roger Stone. And, he is only one of many of Trump's associates---almost his entire cabinet---that in some form are not the kind of people I would want as friends or would do business with. To paraphrase the old proverbs quote, if you are looking for trouble you will find it---this is the quote that should be placed on all those red baseball caps Trump hands out.
29
@Amanda Jones: I think Trump's character gelled in the military-style reform school Trump's father sent him, to learn manners and discipline. Instead young Donald learned about the power of a cash bankroll and the vulnerabilities of people to do what they aren't supposed to.
Recently my family gathered to mourn and inter our high energy banking and real estate entrepreneur, my father's younger brother, who created his own real estate empire from scratch. One could describe him as a God-fearing Donald Trump, except that he never forgot he was born in smoky Alliquippa PA to an immigrant engineer and his wife, who started in the US on its lowest rung. In many ways, both he and my father found themselves in the academy they were sent to be reformed.
4
Stone's activities is part of the the history of this type of dissembling about illegal GOP activities to regain the presidency. Nixon interfered in Vietnamese peace talks and covered it up; Reagan the hostage negotiations with Iran; Iran contra; Ahmed Chalabi and WMD to overthrow Saddam and now Trump and Putin. This has been going on for at least fifty years and is the reason Roger Stone flashes the Nixonian victory sign same as Nixon did when he resigned in disgrace. To Stone the result of Trump being elected justifies the means. Beating Hillary and by implication, Obama, makes Stone and Trump claim hero status for the far right.
The 2016 election is racketeering and treason on a scale that boggles the mind. Stone, Don Jr. Kushner,Trump, Flynn, Manafort, NRA and their cohorts all operate with a different moral compass than their opponents. The only key questions that remains unanswered is how far into the leadership of the GOP did the collusion, treason and racketeering reach this time and how badly did it compromise US foreign policy.
37
Maureen you fail to mention the people who have enabled this for decades and now. The Republican Party so desperate to get and hold onto power to the point of obstructing an investigation into election interference by a foreign adversary including appointing a toady AG and SCOTUS Justice. The media who give the likes of Rudy Giuliani and Jerome Corsi airtime and care so much about the political horse race that all we hear about is who can ‘take on Trump’ ignoring the fact that Trump is an unindicted co-conspirator in a felony. Billionaire donors who are desperate to obtain more of the nation’s wealth by controlling Congress and the judiciary.
How do we little people fight this?
43
Caveat to all Trump haters: remember 1972. To win in 2020 the Democrats best heed the lessons of the 1972 campaign. In 1972 Watergate was all over the news, day in and day out, during the campaign; the electorate was tired of the Vietnam war which did not end as Nixon promised during his 1968 campaign it would "with honor;" the economy was starting to tank. In short, most people did not trust "Tricky Dick." And then what happened? Nixon won 49 out of 50 states in November - a landslide. Why? Because the Democrats were fragmented and nominated George McGovern who was seen as week and too far to the left. So, heed the lessons of 1972, Dems, or we will have Trump until 2024.
29
Like all criminals, you do the crime you do the time and are treated as such. When you violate a criminal law, expect the cops at your door, expect them to come into your house and take things, expect jail time and no bail, which Stone did not get despite being a flight risk, Stone got no more than anyone else charged with drug dealing, conspiracy, and more. No tears for him and how he was arrested. The privilege on those focused on how Stone was arrested. Now, we'll learn how the Trump campaign coordinated with those elements and Russian spy hackers to obtain intelligence on Hilary Clinton and her campaign. Keep in mind this is already known by Mueller and the intelligence community because the NSA and CIA tap and keep tabs on Russians and have that intelligence--this is all just an exercise in how to bring that intelligence under the law to prosecute cooperators.
8
For those people critical of the way Stone was arrested I would refer you to what the Mississippi comedian, Jerry Clower said, "How do you kill a rattlesnake wrong?"
26
Can someone please explain what Roger Stone actually DOES? I mean, how does he actually earn an income?
5
Stone is and was compensated in the millions of dollars by people whom permitted him to perform unethical and at times illegal acts to spin the cultural narrative in a way to increase financial and political power. This is the core essence of many lobbyists. The problem is that when "people compromise their principles for the sake of achieving a short term objectives they wake up to realize they probably don't have any principles- George McGovern "
22
It seemed to me at first that the charges against Stone for which he was a arrested were a little anemic. I was curious to find out a little more about this man, dug back a little and found a very revealing article from 2008 in the New Yorker. His behavior, political attitudes, lack of morals and history of dirty tricks that are described paint a picture of an extremely unsavory person consistant with the accusations against him and far more. He is an operative who has lived in the underbelly of political campaigns and proud of it. My guess is that there is far more to come . https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/06/02/the-dirty-trickster
8
Wow. A whole column about indicted Roger Stone and Trump that never mentions Russia. I realize there’s a lot of ground to cover with Roger - but is there bigger ground than the country of Russia? Sometimes the media is just so oddly underwhelming while our country is under attack from a hostile foreign power.
7
I would imagine that when the government is going to arrest someone at this level they also want to see and get evidence that is in his house so forecasting that they are coming or not arriving in force would enable the person being arrested to have time to get rid of evidence.......
15
I was thinking to myself a few weeks ago that that would really be among the worst forms of poverty that I could endure at 57... having to share a small room with another person, not of my choice. To have the other person be there, 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year, in the same small room.
Maybe that is what he will end up doing with the last ten years of his life.
21
The man has a tattoo. Of Richard Nixon. As a reminder that “A man is not finished when he is defeated; he is only finished when he quits.” Except it’s on his back where he cannot see it. And it’s of a prototypical criminal and immoral politician.
Spare me the shameless self promotion. Nothing would be better for America than to see Roger Stone separated from his vermouth soaked olives and Yorkshire terriers and rot in jail until defeat and/or death.
41
Shakespeare would be at a loss for words to describe this Triumvirate of Sleaze aka Trump, Manafort and Stone. Looking at their photos makes you want to take a long, hot shower.
42
I like your words, but disagree that the task would be too much for the Bard. His description would be immortal, mixing in Shylock, Iago and, of course a teetotaling Falstaff as the Donald.
14
That's an unfair slur on Falstaff. He was not an evil guy.
3
What I want to know is what Nigel Farage had to do with all this. He was seen going into the Equadorian embassy, by members of the press and public, when there was no ostensible reason for him to be there. He’s been over here twice supporting trump, once in August ‘16 after the dump, and once again last year. To me, this ties him in with the trump-Stone-Assange muckracking against Hillary, and possibly to the Russia inquiry, since the Brits believe they were also messed with over Brexit. There’s no reason in the world for a UK “politician”, especially the very one who lied so to the British public then promptly quit UKIP once the damage of Brexit was accomplished, to be in America supporting trump. Given we are well into Individual 1 territory now, I want to know what Farage was doing going to see Assange and then coming to visit trump.
26
Stone, Cohn, Trump,Manafort, Cohen... Birds of an obfuscating feather, may they all rooster together in matching jump suits (posthumously for Cohn but what an effigy). They deserve a walled off environment of their own. 9:04
9
Meanwhile, Trump can't stop telling us about women in vans with duct tape on their mouths. Perhaps his past is catching up with him involuntarily.
21
PETA should sue the guy for animal cruelty... making his dog claim that he's innocent. HA.
9
"His policy ideas are ripped from the gut instead of the head. Still, he can be a catalyst, challenging his rivals where they need to be challenged and smoking them out, ripping off the facades they’ve constructed with their larcenous image makers."
--- Maureen Dowd on Trump 2015
Maureen lives in the People magazine world of politics.
Her piece on Stone continues that superficial work with talk of his martinis and dogs and bodybuilding.
22
My wife and I watched "Get me..." yesterday. It was traumatizing. How is this man not in jail? The man is a psychological mess. This is what you get from a sexually repressed guy who thinks he is ugly and has bad hair. He has channeled his self hatred into an assault on compassion and the better angels of our nature. He is pernicious. He rigged his grade school mock poll. He suckled at the teat of Watergate architects. I want to see his Birth Certificate to prove he isn't really Roy Cohens love Child. (I heard that on Alex Jones) Shave that scalp and you will probably find triple sixes. Bet when he never testifies. The Bibles will immolate on contact with that hand. Oh, I forgot to mention, he and Donald are one in the same. His words. OK, I'm done. I'm out of breathe. Thanks for the lesson Roger. Hope you like the infamy
24
When a man (Stone cold loser) has a tattoo of a crook (Nixon) on his back, you might assume he is also a crook. If it walks like a duck....
16
I can only hope that Stone gazed upon his wall as Warden Norton does in Shawshank to see the biblical quote:
"His Judgement Cometh, and that Right Soon."
By "his" I am referring to Mueller. A man of infinite guile and patience, his perfect record intact, he without a doubt has all the goods on Stone. Recall that Sleazebag Stone has predicted his collar for months - what are the chances that Mueller was triple-checking and cross-referencing his evidence up to Thursday nite?
Stone stumbled into the quicksand and will find there's no point in struggling to escape. There is none.
9
What goes around comes around, and those that were out of vogue are fashionable again. Social media, Wikileaks and smart phones took care of that, giving a new platform to one who practiced said ''dark arts'' .
What those arts (boiled down to their bare essence) amount to is bending truth and bending the will of others to do their bidding. It is to make one believe that they are for something, when in actuality, they are diametrically opposed.
However, with all those that come into fashion, they drop out and off that much quicker. (especially after they have done a ''perp walk'' under the bright lights)
The dogs trail behind forever loyal but a victim in it all too,
3
Stone is another member of the treasonous dark arts cable that inhabits the White House. I had to laugh at the suggestion that the nasty FBI should have called for an appointment. Reality check - it’s how they work to make sure no evidence is destroyed. Stone is a criminal like Trump for threatening bodily harm on opponents. I for one believe that Stormy Daniels was also threatened. These are the people who wanted to lock up Hillary Clinton for being strong against Russia and the Saudis, the woman who worked for women’s rights world wide, and who believed in universal healthcare. The rats will start leaving the sinking ship of state. Kelly Ann and the high heel acolytes should be packing their bags unless they want the FBI knocking on their doors.
16
Roger Stone and Ann Coulter would make a charming couple.
Each takes sleazeball to new frontiers!
20
The greater tragedy here is those poor white people denied all voice and representation have only these kinds of hucksters to depend on while both the Dems and the GOPers laugh all the way to the bank riding along with Wall Street Vampire Squids like Robert Rubin, Jamie Dimon and Lloyd Blankfien and the rest of the Hedgie crooks. Both parties agree to eviscerate the lower and middle classes by unlimited legal and illegal immigration, they agree to zero antitrust enforcement on their corporate masters, they agree to let Wall Street own the Fed and the Treasury, they agree to treat hardworking people like commodities and feudal serfs. Yes lets do a victory dance because a low life like Stone was made window dressing for the now comical sentiment of 'and justice for all' while the rest of the banksters who pillaged and continue to pillage all of us are roaming around scot free. Lets erect monuments and shrines for the politicians who hold the hats and coats and carry the water of these depredators. Huzzah and Amen.
8
Funny, the only people who whine about both parties being the same always vote republican.
2
Would that these words were not true. We Democrats should be celebrating the Ocasio-Cortezes and Elizabeth Warrens and Sherrod Browns ( and Bernies if he weren't such a racist and misogynist). They can lead us towards a society that works for more than the lucky few.
Think about this. One guy has a Nixon tramp stamp on his back. The other guy wears a wig and spray paints his face orange to look healthy.
No one else does this. And we are surprised at this disaster?
22
Another day, another Trump associate is arrested...
What was that you were saying about HRC's emails again, Ms Dowd?
26
I just cannot decide who is uglier - Stone or Trump? Surely the world will be better once both these wretched ugly faces disappear from public discourse.
11
"But now the cat’s cradle of lies and dirty tricks had tripped up the putative dognapper. "
Block that metaphore!!!
2
Stone is a mean,lying self-centered egomaniac. He does not make mistakes and does not ever admit being wrong. Mea culpa is not part of his vocabuary. A Roy Cohn clone Stone shares the same value system as long term pal the Donald. Sadly one these misfits is President. And America pays the price.
13
I read an interview of Roger Stone where he said about Roy Cohn, "Roy is not gay. He just likes to have sex with men." This statement is a metaphor for how Trump's base rationalizes the 7000+ lies he's told in the past two years. Roger is so old he doesn't realize it's OK to be gay today, not like the past when gays had to stay in the closet. He obviously didn't watch Seinfeld---"not that there's anything wrong with that."
8
When are you going to stop mincing words and just say it? We’ve allowed the worlds stupidest and most vile people to gain power. Thanks to the two political parties inherent elitism and the masses lack of analytical ability guys like Trump and Stone have parlayed their stupidity into a money making operation.
Praying for Mueller to bury them
27
Stone will flip quickly enough when he realizes nobody thinks he's a hero, The Trump White House won't lift a finger to help him, and he faces serious time.
Enjoy the attention while you can, Stone.
7
The most disgusting thing about all the disgusting people Trump has surrounded himself with is Trump’s cult following, the Republican Party, will support and defend any cockroach that crawls out from under Trump Rock as long as they have the Trump brand stamped on their forehead. Lying is their credo, they all lie about everything on every level they even lie to themselves about believing in lies. This is not “tribalism”, it is a decease, a sickness, that we have quarantined to the Republican Party but occasionally the contagion spreads to the courthouse steps and we are forced to witness its manifestation in the person of Rodger Stone.
12
The disease is the entire silence of Republicans. That most dangerous.
2
I'm Sorry- You look at that guy==arms up, Nixon hand signal, midriff exposed--you gotta laugh-Are you Kidding Me? Shortly thereafter, Trump relenting in the Rose Garden. He had to think "this Guy's a Joke" and he's on My Team? Dick Tracy's Villains Come to Life for Mueller?
7
he is no less mortal than anyone else. what a legacy...nasty, mean, small...rip
6
Atwater, Liddy, Stone, Cohn, Cohen,etc., in the pantheon of pathetic panderers, they cause great, unnecessary harm, yet always wind up as less than asterisk in the pages of unpatriotic history.
6
Oddly, while everyone agrees he lost, Maureen is the first Trump call him a loser, the title he fears most. Actually, it should be capitalized: Loser. In the school yard it would be, Loser, Loser, Loser.
5
While Mr. Stone most certainly "will not go quietly", his track record speaks more than loudly for itself. What a long, insulting, greedy and short-sighted mess his path has been. Even if you are dressed to the "nines", you ought to know better than to keep Company with Folks like that. But then, greed rules the day for his kind of "ethics" & friends.
It is all worthy of the Song; "The Bigger they come - the Harder they Fall".
So, Mr. Stone - good riddance. And, don't let the gate hit you on the way out.
May 2020 bring our Nation a good, and very much needed Spring Cleaning of Honest Voter Demographics and Results in American Politics.
11
So what are your brother Kevin's thoughts on all of this?
14
The surprise visit from the FBI was to prevent destruction if his phone and hard drives. This is where the truth lies. Don’t believe a word out his mouth. He deserves no common decency some call for, as there is no reason to truth this bottom feeder
12
Dowd resumes her wise-guy stance, putting down those already brought down. She never stood up to Trump or his cronies until it was too late. She dumped on Hillary, Obama and the ratyional wing of American democracy.
Roger Stone is an easy target--with a mayan profile and a cynical craven crudeness at his core.
13
Rule one: never wear a double breasted suit.
Rule two: Trust no one wearing a double breasted suit.
8
The Three Musketeers, Rog, Paul. and Donny Jr., perhaps a foursome with squeaky Jared possibly on the bus as well, how will they look in fashionable orange attire? Perhaps if Roger behaves they'll arrange for a natty pocket hanky to complete his drab wardrobe. Nonetheless, he can turn a phrase, can he not? Albeit usually obnoxious and devious. Well here's one for you to ponder smart guy ... Magna est veritas et prevalebit.
5
David Ferrie never really died.
3
"Always bespoke and natty,"
Really? In the photo, he is wearing a rumpled suit that is a few sizes too big, sort of like a flour sack.
PULEEZE. Stone is a sleaze, and dresses like one, too.
I bet he will look fine in an orange jump suit, or in pink underwear, a la Joe Arpaio.
13
Oh, come on Ms Dowd. Manafort's hair is 'now almost completely white' only because he stopped dyeing it. These people don't have any shame.
10
Stone likes a sunny place for shady people?
Well now his shady life will REALLY come out into the light!
5
What goes around comes around, and those that were out of vogue are fashionable again. Social media, Wikileaks and smart phones took care of that, giving a new platform to one who practiced said ''dark arts'' .
What those arts (boiled down to their bare essence) amount to is bending truth and bending the will of others to do their bidding. It is to make one believe that they are for something, when in actuality, they are diametrically opposed.
However, with all those that come into fashion, they drop out and off that much quicker. (especially after they have done a ''perp walk'' under the bright lights )
The dogs trail behind forever loyal but a victim in it all too,
2
Stone may be a dirtbag but the indictment against him gives not the slightest hint of collusion with Russia. Democrats should take it as a warning not to get more invested in the Trump-Russia conspiracy. The idiots that Trump surrounded himself with were not competent to carry out a sophisticated conspiracy with the Russians and the Russians are far too experienced in conspiracies to do any serious business with the likes of Trump’s crew. Maybe some money laundering and the possibility of a real estate deal in Moscow and that’s it. Hope it’s enough for impeachment in, say, the spring of 2020.
1
Very clever, Mo.
1
You are lost in a frayed dime novel
6
Couldn’t happen to two nicer guys.....
4
Pardon me, Maureen, but Stone will go gently into that dark night, once he realizes that for his pal King Donald loyalty is a one-way street. He will sing like a canary.
And Manafort's hair hasn't just turned white. He probably can't get dye in the joint.
10
Roy Cohn is the direct link from Nixon to Trump. Stone is a pale imitation of Cohn, the master of the dark arts who learned his craft from Joe McCarthy.
4
And when being America is going to catch with America? When is the imperialistic, abusive, individualistic, selfish, money-oriented, one-sided, opportunistic, bully American way of being to the rest of the world is going to catch up with itself? Like the proverbial snake who eats its tail, America is finally meeting its match: her own rotten self.
5
Loser. Meanwhile, Bill Clinton is scheduled to give a presentation on April 27 in Washington DC "An evening with the Clintons." Awesome.
1
Having finished reading Dowd's piece, my next stop will be the bathroom...to take a long shower, with plenty of soap.
1
Noam Chomsky believes the Republican Party is the most dangerous organisation in human history. Listen to him on You Tube.
8
@Eddie Lew
Mr. Chomsky is more intelligent than all of us put together. We'd be smart to listen to him.
Is there anything in Trump’s universe that doesn’t smell like week old garbage?
14
Like attracts like, clearly. The key is that all the players, like Stone, are shallow opportunists with zero values and humility.
It will be fascinating to watch this crew turn on each other as their ships sink.
They will find it impossible to 'keep the stories straight' since truth has never been part of their game plan. And Mueller is tracking 'all the stories'!
It's never the crimes, it's always the cover ups and lies that bring them down.
10
I’ve read Maureen Dowd for many many years. Even bought her books
She is a wonderful writer.
But I’ll never understand her.
She has been around politics and famous people of all types of decades.
Yet she didn’t see the horror of Trump through his infamy in NYC (Central Park 5, business failures, bankruptcies, constant lying, Trump’s long term connections to bad people like Stone) not to mention his national nuttiness (like the whole birther thing)
She didn’t see (or even hear rumors about?) the Harvey Weinstein story even though she has so many professional and personal connections to Hollywood
It’s like she doesn’t direct her wonderful whit to demolish people until just about the whole planet knows it. Not willing to take a risk and be out front on it.
So she flirts with endorsing Trump not seeming to know about the real Trump.
She interviews Gwyneth Paltrow after all the stories broke on Weinstein and acts like its all news to her.
(Makes me wonder what she should know about Kavenaugh given her family’s connections to him. Guess we’ll only find out when everyone else knows)
Maureen - you can’t act like the total outsider when you are so far inside.
47
@Blue I agree!
"The lady doth protest too much, methinks"
(from Hamlet, by William Shakespeare)
3
Nice call, most all of us share this failing, it is indeed, much of the reason we are where we find ourselves. Until Looking in the mirror becomes fashionable, this is where we will remain...
1
Let's for a moment ponder the amount of money, foremost - then energy and resources, we taxpayers have to pay for these endless investigations (not that they're not necessary of course), prosecutions, etc, etc. Are you happy, Trump voters, that all of this money that could've gone to your health care, education, and roads must be spent on these loathsome creatures who'd sell their own mothers out?
24
I think you wrongly assume that anyone who still admits to supporting Trump never gave the first thought to health care, education, or roads.
Even when the failure to address these issues may directly impact these people in a negative way, somehow they're entranced by Trump's lies, double speak, and hollow promises.
It's hard to know if their support is born of fear or ignorance. They appear impervious to reason or publicly recorded evidence that Trump didn't, doesn't, and will never have their interests at heart. At one point maybe they genuinely thought Trump would bust the gridlock of government.
I'm torn. For the least fortunate among them, I sometimes feel my anger turning into pity. For the most fortunate among them, my disbelief has morphed into rage.
Whatever it is, I think these supporters have been lost to a purgatory of delusions. There's nothing left to do for them. It's time to move on.
11
The majority still consists of decent folks, albeit not by much. We can only hope that Stone and Manafort's impeccable wardrobes will be replaced by orange jumpsuits, leg irons, and a pick axe to split boulders all day long in the desert sun.
7
Nixon was never impeached. He didn't stick around long enough.
3
Folks
It is vital to recognize the Russian agitprop campaign continues - within these NY Times Comments. The moderators do an outstanding job curbing Russian agitprop. But Russian influence is still felt.
If you will note, the comments that are highest reader recommended are those which are most incendiary, most venomous, most inflammatory. Regardless of whether the author was Russian, posts full of fury are the ones Russian are most apt to recommend. Hyper-partisanship is what the Russians are seeking to sow in this political season.
Assume all social media is purposely tainted by the Russian Federation. And assume that this will be the case for the foreseeable future
7
Let's not forget the media's role in enabling this creep and his treasonous ilk. Stone has been an invited guest MSNBC and CNN for years, including during and after the 2016 presidential campaign. Why? Because ever since TV moguls decided it was more profitable to fold news into their entertainment divisions and the internet posed an existential threat to mainstream print media, the concept of news as a public service has gone the way of the dinosaur. Hence Stone, a flamboyant narcissist like Trump, became a media darling. Les Moonves was telling the truth when he quipped that all that free air-time for candidate Trump was bad for democracy but great for business. Did his admission create a scandal? It should have, but it didn't. These people are shameless. Chris Cuomo, the consummate ratings hound, gave Stone a platform on his show this past Friday night--the very day of Stone's indictment. That's entertainment, folks! A side note: Stone's former pal Randy Credico used to be a brilliant political comedian. He had a show on WBAI, the venerable listener-sponsored liberal NYC radio station. Touting Stone as his mentor, Credico featured Stone on his show during the campaign without a hint of irony. Credico should be indicted too. He was part of the Assange connection. They are all narcissists and all corrupt.
11
Concerning stones method of arrest, he merely found out how it is to be treated by law enforcement in many zip codes in this county, no sympathy whatsoever.
11
After reading this piece and comments yesterday, I watched "Get Me Roger Stone," on Netflix last night.
I am very disturbed, disheartened and frustrated.
As a New Yorker, having family high up in the Republican party. I was not paying attention back then, but now? I know the unethical and illicit way most of these politicians and players behavior.
I never thought donald would get in, but was told he would when the odds were extremely low.
Sadly, now that time has passed,(1980-) I can now think clearly, google names and dates. Ugh.
Pay closer attention.
I remember situations that I now can critically think about. It scares me, shocks me and I am appalled by the lack of self respect these people have. It is dirty.
I recognize most names and donald was never respected. How did he win? There is a disease in politics and it is terrifying to see what is going on.
I understand how things work. It isn't about our country/laws. It is about greed, power, control, and throwing anyone under the bus that gets in the way.
One day? I do hope they connect the dots. Start in Albany with development, zoning, contractors, cleaning up areas in NYC , the people that helped Reagan.
I worry that this has been going on so long that I don't know how we go back to the true core of goodness . Get rid of the dirty players. Most are not outwardly vile as Stone.
It is a very dangerous underworld and it is not guided by goodness, ethics
but money, ego, lies, favors and power.
14
Great comment thank you. We need somehow to get people aware.
5
Why is it so many Americans believe whatever they are told? People like Trump and Stone commit crimes and lie in plain sight and many of our countrymen lap it up like duck soup. Was it growing up in the era of Disney and Spielberg that has made so much of the public susceptible to political special effects? "Of course President Obama is a Muslim, my TV said so." You can't fool all of the people, but you certainly will have no trouble fooling half of them. These remain dangerous times.
13
Nixon? No, Roy Cohn, Esq. is the thread that ties Trump to Stone. Cohn was mentoring friend to both men.
Cohn was a savagely unethical lawyer who was infamous for the most outrageous personal attacks upon adversaries as well as other unsavory and illegal acts. He was disbarred and died in perfect disgrace.
The apple does not fall from from the tree here.
13
Always struck me as a wimp.
Stone Cold? Lives "in a dog eat dog world"? Threatens people like Credico with his lawyers? Threatens Credico's dog?
You have got to be kidding.
There are people who would set Stone for bait and never lose a night's sleep and set him again the next day.
5
@Fred Yes, 'wanna be's' play acting at toughness. Fakes all the way.
I think Congress should pass funding for Trump’s wall. Make it 40 feet high and in the shape of a rectangle in which to put The Donald and all of Trump’s corrupt cronies. Our national security would be far better served this way than with one lining the southern border.
8
I am sure that must be a real turn-on for the ladies, sleeping in a bed with a guy that has an image of Nixon’s face on his back.
6
"You get who you vote for"
5
Nixon is someone that Roger Stone looked up to, and the only thing President Trump Love more than money was to emulate both of these men. He revilled [Trump] at all the dirty tricks that Cohen and Stone put into play over the years. Men like these would spit on a down and out man on the street looking for a handout. With their dirty connections and their money made unscrupulously, these guys have been laughing at the rest of us paying taxes and being kind to a fellow man," that's for suckers". If there is a God in heaven Pelican Bay will be their next stop.
5
There is a whole barrel full of sleaze running the United States government. It includes Trump, Stone, Manafort, Cohen and is topped off with McConnell. I hope Mr. Mueller brings them all crashing down. The prevailing thought amongst them is, "lawfulness is for suckers," and they are proving it to us all.
We have a Democratic majority in the House and a lot of Republicans in the Senate who are see Trump for the inept loser he really is. They all need to stop the wall charade and get down to the business of acting in America's best interest.
18
Pence the silent one. No backbone either
1
Nice writing here .. but never forget Ms Dowd's bragged about being pals with these people all during the campaign.
13
You can say this, and this alone, for Roger Stone, aka the Babadook. He is not wrong about the buttondown collar with a double-breasted jacket.
7
Roger Stone is a thug and a bully who finally met his match in Robert Mueller. Thing is, Robert Mueller has taken down far more dangerous people his whole career. Roger is child’s play by comparison. I think Roger should get ready to be somebody else’s terrier.
Mr. Mueller, I suspect, has an ace or two up his sleeve. My guess is that we’ll see the transition leader getting involved, then a namesake.
6
Stone reminds me of the Wicked Witch in WIZARD OF OZ: "I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog too". He does not sound like a person to whom I would entrust any power.
7
Anyone surprised this guy is one of trump’s best friends?
11
It amazes me when people come to Stone's defense as if he ever cared about them. Stone admittedly has always been about playing and winning a game. He has no vision beyond that. No solutions to anything just like his supporters.
7
All this and what appears to be an amazing hair-piece, or weave or something that makes him look like he has a mop atop. What is it with Trump and his posse that so many of them have weird hair things going on, including the leader of North Korea, and his eraser thing?. Perhaps its worth noting that it seems to be a theme with dictators and their crowd. Funny moustaches, comb-overs and wigs. It seems they are fond of covering up the bald truth of the matter, at all costs. And Stone is a master at misdirection, misinformation and all that stuff, so why can't he master his own appearance. Its delusional, that's why.
7
At least he knows what he is. But a smarter person would refrain from bragging about how rotten they are.
7
Donald Trump on Michael Cohen
"Remember, Michael Cohen only became a “Rat” after the FBI did something which was absolutely unthinkable & unheard of until the Witch Hunt was illegally started."
Roger Stone
Credico is a "rat"
Only guilty criminals refer to whistle blowers as rats or is it projection.
5
The other night, I held my breath for the duration of Tucker Carlson's 'interview' of Roger Stone. At the end, when my face was almost blue and my gut in turmoil, I practically shed a tear for the guy! That sorry segment set martyrdom back by 2000 years.
5
no one worked harder to put Trump in White House
than Dowd.
silence is warranted
9
As someone who knows the deliciousness is soaking Roquefort-stuffed olives in Dolin vermouth, he’s going to sorely miss those where he’s going, and THAT is the best and worst punishment that this vermin greatly deserves. Hear that, Roger? Hear me shaking my Grey Goose dirty martini with those jumbo olives as I type your epitaph?
10
Maureen, it would be interesting if Stone learned to do G. Gordon Liddy’s ‘candle trick’, which actually takes some stones.
“Since my will was so strong I could endure a long, deep, flesh-charring burn without a flicker of expression, I wasn't concerned... I was ready for anything."
In a 1980 interview with Fresh Air's Terry Gross, Liddy said that resisting the pain of the flame helped him build the psychological strength to "resist all three branches of the federal government" during the Watergate investigation.
Maybe Stone will take some of his long prison time to practice, but I’ll bet he will both be “defeated and quit”.
5
Republicans are not concerned that Stone worked with Wikileaks, who released secrets that Russian operatives illegally gathered from Democratic Party computers. This is no different from Nixon's staff breaking into the Watergate office of the Democratic Party years ago. Nixon never announced in a speech that the media would pay for anything the Watergate criminals recovered and published - because that would be illegal. These people should be imprisoned for incredible supidity. Trump should be imprisoned for associating with and willfully employing such incompetent bumblers and idiots. Don't they know the FBI and CIA watches the type of behavior they were employed in? And I cannot figure out why Comey kept giving them a pass before the election while coming down on Clinton - she didn't ask for aid from a foreign government or use illegally obtained information against Trump. And Trump and all his family use private servers and unprotected cell phones. I don't believe anything that happens will stop Trump from running for President again and winning unless Mueller can prove absolutely to a court that Trump is a law breaker because Republican voters and representatives don't care how stupid and absolutely inane the man is as long as they can successfully lie to the electorate they haven't been able to silence or thwart.
4
Why did you endorse these people. You own them. Your criticism is cheap. This was all known. Nothing new.
7
If the "hate is a stronger emotion than love" quotation is fairly attributed to Stone he seems to have got it right. It would appear there is an awesome amount of hate expressed in the comments to this remarkably hateful, even for Dowd, piece.
1
Dear Ms. Dowd: Please remember that all your snarky comments and Hillary bashing during the last election helped to enable all these monsters. You bear part of the blame for trump.
11
The mystery is why Roger Stone, who publicly boasted he acted as an intermediary between Wikileaks and the Trump campaign, would lie about it to Congress and federal investigators. As the Washington Post pointed out yesterday, “Stone was not charged with any crimes related to communicating with WikiLeaks about its activities.” The reason for this is communicating with Wikileaks is not unlawful. Neither was sharing information about pending WikiLeaks with members of the Trump campaign.
That Serve Bannon of the Trump campaign exchanged emails with Stone about WikiLeaks’ plan to publish Clinton email messages is old news. The New York Times published some of Bannon and Stone’s email mail messages in a Nov. 1, 2018 article headlined “Read the Emails: The Trump Campaign and Roger Stone.” The emails reveal the Trump campaign had no insider knowledge about the hacked DNC or Podesta email or WikiLeaks’ plans to published it. Otherwise, they would not have had to rely on Roger Stone for WikiLeaks information.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/opinion/roger-stone-trump.html?comments#permid=30339505
1
Maureen Dowd was so critical of Barack Obama. And the Clintons, of course. She could not find anything good to say about them. But now, does she really think we are better off with our current president than we would have been with Hillary? Please, Ms. Dowd, write an Op-Ed about that.
10
Political porn. The larger the lie, the more it is said, the more the ignorant voter believes it. We need sunshine to burn the evil out of these devils. Is that not what open oversight hearing are supposed to do.
2
Bannon, or Kushner next?
What are the odds in Las Vegas?
4
When Roger Stone is in an orange jump suit, in a cold prison cell with plenty of time to reflect, it just might temper his smug arrogant outlook on life.
7
No gratuitous snark against the Clintons, Gore, or Obama. Let us be thankful for that.
5
Apparently Stone testified before congress that he had never texted or emailed a certain individual, an individual he had texted dozens of times that very day! What characterizes Trump's "best people" is not only their mendacity, but also their stupidity.
8
The sum and substance of Roger Stone's pre-dawn arrest by the FBI SWAT team in Ft. Lauderdale is that his past as a trickster and sleazy man has caught up with him. Florida, "The sunny place with shady people" is Roger Stone's go to winter place. He was caught in the Special Counsel's net that is surrounding all of the president's men. Roger Stone has been Trump's friend for decades. A useful man to Trump as he ran for the White House -- of limited honesty or merit -- he was arrested for lying, obstruction and witness-tampering, Wondering if Donald Trump will have Roger Stone's face tattooed on his back (as Stone has Nixon's face famously tattooed on his)? Stone's dirty tricks for Republicans since Watergate, and his guru Roy Cohn, have shown that hate is a stronger motivation than love. Yes, we're witnessing angry, white working-class GOP voters -- bigoted, ignorant that all people in America were created equal, that they in their red maga hats aren't more equal that the rest of us. If Stone's "slash-and-burn" tactics are now viral, god save America in the coming months of our Trumpian Armageddon.
4
When Stone says, “Hate is a stronger motivator than love,” as given in this column, he’s probably correct ... but only insofar as there pre-exists a disposition of fear. And with this, Trump and Co. make their move for domination. Love is a remedy for hate because, after all, love obliterates fear due at least to its just and gentle nature. The problem with love as far as the likes of those who prefer hate is that these individuals lose their chance to dominate. And that’s what our democracy is up against presently with the Trump organization.
5
Some in this commentary section and others are upset about the raid. Mr. Stone is a civilized person. He is not a drug dealer in a crack house. He would have turned himself in. The raid was jackbooted and inappropriate. Others argue that it was to prevent Mr. Stone from destroying evidence.
My husband says it was to make him feel viscerally what prison might be like, because anyone with any sense would surely have destroyed any evidence a long time ago, given the length of the investigation.
Maybe so. Or maybe he's continued to contact people via email or has saved documents (for possible blackmail) because, as Ms. Dowd points out and as seems clear from his behavior following his court appearance, he does not seem to realize how serious all these charges are. He still does not think "the rules apply to him." His behavior in the past certainly does not suggest that he is a prudent person.
So who knows what he might have kept or newly created, assuming that his crimes would a) never catch up with him and b) as long as he did not fold, the President would pardon him and he would do no jail time at all?
Hubris is a great friend to investigators because such overweening pride means that mostly people trap themselves.
12
@wanda
Or Stone knows that a pardon cures all ills.
1
@wanda
Those commenters here that believe the Stone is a 'civilized' person, obviously have no clue what the word means.
A civilized person doesn't threat someone's therapy dog, nor do they use the vulgar expression that are a trade mark of Stone.
He is as uncivilized as the Banana Republic little potentate in the Oval Office.
Two peas in a pot.
I predict that like Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown, Roger Stone's epitaph will read "they carved no hopeful verse upon his tombstone, for his dying hour was gloom."
10
To test the Department of Justice internal rule that a sitting president must not be indicted, imagine that a president walks out on to Fifth Avenue with a gun and shoots the head Justice Dept. attorney of the Southern District of New York.
We would find out in a New York minute that the Justice Department's rule is not the law.
It is not the severity of the crime that dictates the American ideal and Constitutional provision that no person is above the law.
19
So all the president's men will get their walls. It would be fitting for them all to serve their time in the same facility. Call it The Trump Library.
46
Funny, I’ve been trying to imagine what would be contained in a trump library.
4
@DBR
The Tump Library will be painted in orange, and hair dye and sunning beds will be delivered to every inhabitant.
2
@AnnaFarrar
books that can be judged by their cover.
1
What's that old D.C. adage ? If you want a friend in this town, get a dog. Trump has no dog and his pal Roger Stone would stoop to dog -napping someone's pet. People like them are to be avoided. Even dogs know that.
17
Prison and its bad boys will provide Roger (the name is a perfect fit) with the love his parents failed or refused to offer. The LGBT community is losing one of its best and brightest whose star or whatever shined brightest in the NYC parade.
2
Given that the Trump campaign was a uniquely bare-bones, amateurish, fly-by-the-seat-of-the-pants operation, a precursor of the West Wing we've been watching for the last two years, the number of people who could have "directed" Steve Bannon to do anything, let alone coordinate with Roger Stone on WikiLeaks' release of Clinton campaign emails hacked by the Russians, was remarkably small.
Probably just two.
Common sense dictates that it was either the Trump campaign's analytics magician, son-in-law Jared Kushner, or the big boss himself, Individual-1. As for speculation that it may have been hapless Don Jr., be serious for a moment: Would you even trust him to take out the garbage?
Of all the names tied to this bizarre intrigue, Bannon seems the smartest, or at least the shrewdest, so don't be shocked if, in the end, we learn that he has cut an immunity deal with the special counsel to save his own skin in exchange for telling what he knows about the Russian nesting doll-like structure and its main beneficiary: Individual-1.
Jared and Don Jr.'s culpability, including lying to Congress, may well be a bargaining chip for ultimately achieving the greatest good for our country: getting a criminal president out of the White House. It's hard to imagine that even @realDonaldTrump is so heartless that he'd want eight of his young grandchildren to have to visit their fathers in prison.
Meanwhile, Roger Stone will twist slowly, slowly in the wind. It couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
14
"At the moment, though, dogged by Mueller, Stone and Manafort are the dog’s breakfast."
I am not sure that I understand that sentence: "dog's breakfast," which has been British slang for "a complete mess" since at least the 1930s, and more or less a synonym for "dog's dinner".
I understand that Ms. Dowd seems to continue to use dog metaphors, as dogs are a backdrop to the op-ed, but I am confused whether she is using the common Briticism or whether there is some other American usage of the phrase.
3
Maybe Trump is for dinner...
@Joshua Schwartz
You contradict yourself, because as to the British definition of a dog's breakfast, Stone and Manafort are indeed in a complete mess, probably joined soon by Jared-Dearest and Don Junior et. al.
You do know that in 1996, Stone resigned from Senator Bob Dole's campaign after The National Enquirer wrote that Stone had placed ads and pictures in racy swingers' publications and a website seeking sexual partners for himself and his second wife, Nydia Bertran Stone.
Stone denied the story and concocted a totally false cover up, but finally admitted it was true in the New Yorker magazine in 2008.
7
Trenchant as ususal, although with more time, this line would have been cut: "Manafort’s hair is now almost completely white."
3
"No matter how cynical you become, its never enough to keep up."
Lily Tomlin
17
Ah, Cruella Deville--now I have the perfect image for Roger Stone. No, actualy he's one of those bumbling sidekicks. Trump's the other. Cruella Deville: Putin.
1
When do we see a solution to the ever rising prices of health care? When do we get our crumbling bridges and roads fixed? When will we eliminate the lead water from our cities' pipes? How will we help raise those up living paycheck to paycheck? In other words, when is DC going to get back to the business of representing all us little people out here in the heartland of America?
Instead, what do we get? A whole lotta time, money, and media coverage dedicated to the likes of Stone, Manafort, and their disgusting stooge, Trump. I'm sick and tired of it all and want my country back.
I'm sorry Ms. Dowd, I just don't want to read about these people and their foul lives anymore. I want to hear about the people that are serious about getting back to the job of helping their fellow Americans. And I want to hear about how we can make America good again.
21
Manafort without his hair dye and a cane, Stone in a tacky too short shirt and Mom jeans sans belt, is democracy.
12
@Howard Clark The gray hair and cane are probably props to elicit sympathy. And I doubt the jail provides hair dye.
4
Per AP917's and other's comments below, it "narcissism" that allows Stone and others to be charismatic, larger than life, over-confident, like a movie or cartoon character. Most of these people have high amounts of narcissism and probably are sociopaths too. They have very high amounts of what appears to be confidence or invulnerability - its very unrealistic - they will be going down (or up, the river). I think that as a population we need to learn more about what some of these dangerous-acting personality disorders are - there's a wealth of information online.
4
Another good reason for this nation to reinstitute the draft, and make all young people, male and female, bone spurs or not, serve their country.
A sickness seeps into the bones of many who feel left out and ignored, and they medicate it with hate and meanness. Perhaps serving two years in the military, or 2.5 years in other nation service would give strutting braggarts like Stone a sense of belonging to something that is worth building up, not tearing down.
As for that Nixon tattoo, Nixon was a traitor who conspired to stop the 1968 Vietnam Peace Talks so that he could gain political power. Thousands of Americans died from that point fighting a losing war, so yes, anyone who cherishes Nixon is indeed a Stone Cold Loser.
Hugh
7
You gotta feel for real dogs. They don’t know when their master is corrupt. It’s the human dogs one learns to despise in democracy gone astray.
5
Everyday, I am more appalled by the people with whom this president is closely associated! Since Trump in reality ran a small mom and pop organization, and not the reality show ' conglemorate' of "The Apprentice"... there is not a chance in the world that Trump did not know, and certainly encourage Stone's collusion with Wikileaks, to work against our democracy.
We have a president who barely works, bullies and abuses people and countrries, tampers with witnesses, and in plain view, continues to collude with Russia to destabilize our country, and weaken the world order.
It does not get worse than this. This is another DARK era to add to the dark era of slavery, in our country's history. These times are as sad as they are dire.
10
First of all, I enjoy reading comments. They are inspiring and I always learn from them. Writing comments helps me articulate my thoughts and sharpen my views. Thanks to those who write comments and read and comment on mine.
Stone could be the poster boy of Trump's cronies.
On Friday night's Shields and Brooks on PBS, Mark Shields said it best: Roger Stone passed through the idealistic stage sometime around recess in the second grade in October and got over it in a helluva hurry and has been there ever since.
7
Mueller is casting a net over the biggest, sleaziest crooks in US history, and Trump is squirming.
Mueller's investigation will end in a spectacular coup de grace for the treacherous Republican Party!
7
The best punishment possible for trump and stone? Throw them in jail, then completely ignore them. Ignore everything they say, deny them any and all media coverage. That lack of attention will torture them plenty.
9
Right wing politics is for people and nations that never grow out of juvenile delinquency.
7
Roger Stone: Another older very white male that was never told "No!" during his formative years.
7
What a nightmare people like these have sway in the upper echelons of government. I mean, truly, icky. It matters not that he is slinked around for decades. Ew.
4
Honest question:
Is Roger Stone a member of the LGBTQ community?
6
Stone appears to be Tom Wolfe minus the literary talent, but plus the Nixon tattoo. He's a dandy without a conscience.
1
In the end, it's every man for himself, at least in Trumpworld. Just wait, Roger will flip. No one is going to sacrifice themselves for Donald. He isn't worth it.
Look at the record--Donald stalwarts like Michael Flynn and Michael Cohen are cooperating. Even Paul Manafort took a stab at it, unsuccessfully. Remember, Andrew Weissman famously got Andy Fastow to flip in the Enron investigation. While Donald is forced to surround himself with the F Troop of advisers, Mueller commands the A Team.
Roger is not going to spend the rest of his life sitting in jail for Donald. He'll enjoy all the attention he gets from singing like a bird, loudly and often. He'll probably wear a top hat, tailcoat and spats to his trial, looking like Mr. Peanut or whomever his style icon actually is. It's theater for Roger.
7
Stone is one of the many political hitmen retained by the Republicans over the last 40+ years; a bunch of reprobates employed by power-hungry politicians to find ways to ruin their enemies, sometimes intraparty. What is really remarkable is how many are, or have been, connected to Trump.
The most offensive part of all of this is that Stone and all these evildoers are well known among Republican politicians and political journalists. In other words, over the last 25+ years, Trump and his henchmen have been very much on the radar. Stone, Manafort, Black, Corsi, Atwater, Ailes, Rollins, et al. have plied their trade in campaigns for decades and earned a reputation for playing outside the rules, winning at any cost. For example, it is difficult to fully calculate the damage the right-wing media, and in particular FOX News has done to the country.
It is hard to understand why the general public and the voters in America did not get a heads-up from the mainstream media about Trump's sleazy and corrupt past and that of his political operatives like Roger Stone. It could well be seen as one of the greatest failures in political journalism. Or, have we just become inured to politics as usual?
BTW Maureen Dowd and NYT (and many other media outlets,) Bill and Hillary Clinton, or most any Democratic operative are no saints but they are not even in the same league as Stone, Trump, and the others when it comes to dirty, corrupt, sleazeball politics - not even remotely close!
10
Perhaps Roger is right that hate is a stronger motivator and thus it is fitting that a lot of people love hating him and can't wait to see him go down drowning in his vermouth.
Only the most nefarious of political sleazeballs would threaten someones's pet and this sicko is definitely on the path to dying with the similar infamy and disgrace of his dubious "hero" Nixon. However, I bet no one will tattoo Stone anywhere on their body, unless maybe it is a scene of him pathetically wearing his PJ's at his Florida front door.
Don't count out Trump's long-time dirty-trickster yet. Trump has a get-out-of-jail card waiting for him when Stone is inevitably convicted. Those Trump cards are stacking up.
1
Stone feeds on ignorance and fear. He is the perfect pal for Trump. Neither one believes that rules apply to behavior. Neither has a sense of ethics, morality or social responsibility. They are proud Republicans. They represent the most vile nature of Republicans wearing it as a badge of courage; The courage to demean, disparage, denigrate and destroy others so they can advance themselves at everyone else's expense.
Stone's value to Mueller is not totally apparent right now. The FBI has seized valuable electronic records including texts, cell phone records, computer hard drives, bank and Internet transactions and who knows what else.
Very tellingly Trump has said little. Stone knows too much. He knows what a shameless sleaze Trump and his cohorts really are and he knows where the bones are buried.
In Watergate Deep Throat famously said "Follow the money." The Stone revelations are yet to be fully realized but I'd guess that the FBI is following the money and electronic trail right to the White House. The investigation will find far more than collusion.
I'd bet that many Republicans currently in office are concerned not just that they supported Donald Trump but also why they did it. There was a bucket of money that fed Watergate. This will be far worse. At the end many Trump cronies, supporters, political pals, attorneys and business people will rue the day that Trump became President. Compared to Trump, Nixon played patty cake. He had some respect for institutions.
4
Roger Stone? Your column should not be taking pot shots at him, but rather at an American electorate that put Roger Stone's soul brother in the White House. How is it that the gangster-like pals of Mr. Trump were not daily media fare during the campaign? How do you justify your Clinton-phobia, which helped get Mr. Trump elected, Ms. Dowd?
The president's buddy touts the morals of the mob, as does the president himself. Snakes are snakes. But the electorate, and those in the media who railed against HRC, put the snakes in charge.
10
You might mean "mendacious" rather than "meretricious."
It was so very strange to see the belly of the snake when he flashed his Nixonian 'victory' gesture, down to the shaking of the fingers. Since he's been expecting an arrest for some time, I would have thought he'd have his nattiest suit at the ready to jump into when the FBI knocked on his door, no matter the time. Instead he let us see him look absolutely cheesy.
Cheesy is what he always was, is and will be. A cheesy liar. And all I care about is that his arrest will lead to the arrest of Mr. Trump. And Mr. Trump will finally be given a consequence he can't blowhard his way out of.
I truly hope that Mr. Mueller takes down both Trump and the hypocritical, sycophantic Pence and then we will have the Queen of the House, President Nancy "I call her Nancy" Pelosi.
A girl can dream can't she? Dream a new dream for my country.
4
They say in Washington, if you need a friend , get a dog.Stone has two Corgis, probably his only pals.He has invented Roger Stone and is going to stay in character til the end.He is the true successor to Nora Desmond making a grand appearance hoping that all the cameras are focused on him and rolling.I hope they get a great shot of him in a double breasted orange jumpsuit!
4
Mo, when The Dons Sr. and Jr. both get their day in court, will you duly christen that their "Donnybrook"? I eagerly look forward to that day and keep hoping to wake up and see that either one or both of these slimeballs receives their long overdue comeuppance. Try as The Dapper Dons have to pour sand into the gears of American democracy and justice, the wheels are slowly grinding onward, in spite of their efforts. I will not rest easy, however, until justice is done and they wear their own set of Manafort prison duds. Keep up the good work!
3
Trump kept saying how he only hires “the best people”. As Aesop once said: “A man is judged by the company he keeps.”
4
What goes around comes around, and those that were out of vogue are fashionable again. Social media and smart phones took care of that, giving a new platform to one who practiced said ''dark-arts'' .
What those arts (boiled down to their bare essence) amount to is bending truth and bending the will of others to do their bidding. It is to make one believe that they are for something, when in actuality, they are diametrically opposed.
However, with all those that come into fashion, they drop out and off that much quicker. (especially after they have been dragged out from their homes under the bright lights)
The terriers trail behind forever loyal but a victim in it all too.
You don't get to the top of the political leadership class by being nice or kind. You might, maybe, get there by being mostly decent, but probably not.
We have had three not too bright Presidents lately...Reagan (a grade B actor who was a puppet for HW Bush), W. Bush (a stooge for Cheney) and now Trump who is just out of control. Roy Cohn was an awful person and Fred Trump really liked him. Trump was taught at their knees. Lie, cheat, steal and sue. Presidential behavior now, and acceptable to many. UGH.
These kinds of people are not in touch inside themselves with any kind of generic spirituality -- with the idea that what matters is a person's character and behavior, not his belongings or holdings. They are impressed with all the wrong things for wrong reasons. To them, "deny, deny, deny" is just part of being alive. That some people do not have to deny anything seems to them like a myth.
I hope all these thugs get to stay in jail for a long time but it seems unlikely. The American people who vote for McConnell and all the old, mean, white, rich, "so-called Christians" and who rely upon FOX/SINCLAIR for all their news are as much a part of the success of these miserable individuals as anything else. Intractable minds.
Good column, Maureen. Like your old self before you became a one-woman Clinton basher. Keep it up.
6
More reality show footage.
A lifetime of dirty tricks and hurting people though he has described his family as Connecticut middle-class, blue-collar Catholics.
What happened?
Stone must have been stoned when he gave the Nixon victory salute. It is obvious Mueller and the FBI were intent on making him sweat and went in to get him with guns drawn. Banking on a pardon from Trump he smirks, but as happened to Manafort he has on foot in jail and the other on a banana peel. At his age a slip and fall can be very dangerous.
2
Hate is definitely a stronger motivator than love, and Trump and his accomplices have earned our hate as well as our scorn and disgust. If they think it’s better to go to jail famous than never to have been famous at all, let’s oblige them.
4
Stone represents just about everything wrong and evil in the human race. What is worse and even more profound are the insane numbers of so-called Human Beings who continue to support him and his kind.
What will it take for those supporters of Stone and Trump to realize that just maybe they’ve all fallen into the sewer with them? Maybe when the odor coming out of their pores reaches their noses?
2
“The pair has given practicing the dark arts a bad name.” Way too optimistic, as your essay demonstrates, Ms. Dowd.
It is nice to see somone who revels in being a "dark force" get their comeuppance. Their only utility is in assisting other shady characters, in this case, Donald J. Trump!
3
And what about the damage Stone did to Hillary's campaign, true misogynist that he is? Those of us who donated to her campaign, volunteered for her and believed in her … ? I don't see any reference to how he cheated us in this column.
5
Stone's response to his arrest: "This indictment is fabricated..."
This, from a man whose whole persona is fabricated. What a kook! He has a lot in common with Donald Trump. Their craving for attention is pathological.
5
This is like a 21st Century version of the Cosa Nostra. I say this as a Sicilian-American! Stone is a wretched man, but indeed so is his long-time confidant Donald Trump, a "Don" indeed. They are lawless, amoral, alas, I believe, criminals. We all remember when Trump exclaimed proudly during his now infamous campaign that he could walk down 5th Avenue and shoot someone, and he would get away with it. And there lies the problem... The privileged and arrogant Stone and Trump have gotten away with - as far as we know - everything short of murder. But in their own ways they do destroy, they have destroyed. Have they not? Look at the people to this day whom they exploit and use. They deny so many the right to health and welfare through their greed and profound narcissism. Stone is one more piece of that notorious puzzle being meticulously put together by Mueller and his team. As reported by the Times today, he has been involved with the Russians 18 times, Don, Jr., 17. You tell me that Daddy Trump was not aware of this? Yes, Maureen, Stone is a Cold Loser, as is his "boss." Call it vindictiveness...but I am not ashamed to say that I hope this man is imprisoned for the rest of his sad life.
4
America needs to wake up! These losers in the Republican party have been around for decades with their stench and rot.
Why hasn't anyone tried to stop them up to this point in time?
Why are these losers allowed to continue to exist in the public sphere and influence policy making and wield power?
These kinds of sub-human miscreants should have been shunned away a long, long, time ago. Was it all worthwhile so the rich could get a tax cut? Seems like that's the case. We are in big trouble America...big trouble.
2
Up to our eye balls in monkey business as far as memory- confronted with the crossroads at every turn- dealing with the devil- bemoaning our plight along the twisted path- claiming the higher ground- fooling only ourselves! Woe are we- no end in sight- a species unable to delay gratification in real time.
1
Getting a tattoo of Nixon ranks just below holding one's hand in a flame, a la G. Gordon Liddy.
1
More like C. Mucius Scaevola, a Roman youth who in 508 BC went to the camp of the Etruscan king Lars Porsena to murder him. When captured he purportedly told Porsena: "Watch, so that you know how cheap the body is to men who have their eye on great glory." He then stuck his right hand in a sacrificial fire and burned it off. The rest is history. For his daring he gained the cognomen Scaevola, or "lefty" in a modern translation.
1
The American people are the real losers in a trump presidency and his pre and post election enablers are forever tainted (Mo included).
3
"The pair has given practicing the dark arts a bad name." Tell me, Maureen, when did practicing the DARK arts ever have a GOOD name?
5
Individual 1 will sell him a pardon for forty pieces of silver.
2
Wow. Judas only got thirty pieces of silver for selling out a much more valuable asset.
I like the way you think! I might just go out and buy a case of champagne to celebrate the days the Trump team reports to state and federal lockup, one slimeball at a time.
1
What comes around goes around. Finally.
2
Stone calls himself a dirty trickster. What he means is that he will lie, cheat, steal and conspire with foreign enemies to win an election.
Lying, cheating and stealing in order to win an election doesn't make you a "winner" it makes you a liar, a cheater and a thief.
In a democracy, deceit is the greatest crime against the people because our representative government relies on the consent of the people, not just their consent; but, their "informed consent." Propaganda and dirty tricks should be left to the autocrats and despots.
8
Trump is a genius at attracting the worst in American society.
3
While it is good that Mr. Stone and Mr. Manafort are being indicted and convicted respectively, everyone should keep calm and steady and wait until the process is over. Trump, Stone and Manafort have been doing shady things for at least 40 years now, and they have not only gotten away with it, they have prospered beyond belief (all are in the top 0.5% in the US), they have a roster of friends and allies all the way to the uppermost echelons of government, in all three branches, plus hordes of lawyers, cops, FBI agents and other powerful influencers, and yes, they also have had unlimited and extremely generous free publicity and legitimacy from the uppermost levels of the newsmedia, including Ms. Dowd herself.
Those are facts, and damning facts at that. We all need to know what we are up against, and act realistically and rationally. Mr. Mueller seems to take a sober and systematic approach in order to thread his way through this forest of dangerously benign people who run our nation and our society. We all need to help by being calm and sober and attentive when we might get involved directly or indirectly in the process.
If you have a sub to WaPo and NYT online, take a look each day at the main webpage and look at the fake plurality of opinions and the mismatched headlines to the articles. There is so much distracting noise out there, and it is not a conspiracy, just brainless greed killing public discourse and accepted reality. Wait till the game is over, then celebrate.
Stone and Trump. Made for each other.
1
It's a real tough call.
Who has been the very worst of Trump’s accomplices in crime?
Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Steve Bannon, Betsy Devos, Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, Kellyanne Conway, Steve Mnuchin, Stephen Miller, “Judge” Roy Moore, Mike Pence, Tom Price, Scott Pruitt, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Jeff Sessions, Roger Stone?
I’m opening the envelope …
And the winner is ….
6
The enemy of our democracy is the numbing of the mind. In times past, the revelations that a President of the United States had surrounded himself with "advisers" like this would have felled him.
How do Trump's supporters rationalize this stuff? This is like still inviting a brother in law to dinner - despite his conviction of murder or worse.
The list of people Trump has employed should strike terror in the heart of any American with a sense of justice - and a shred of decency.
Apparently, political power and revenge are the single most important drivers in Republican politics. Those were always available to any politician, but I do remember some of them saying they would like to "do the right thing".
Perhaps, after this insane administration departs, such concepts will return....we can hope.
19
@Bob Bruce Anderson
Really Bob? As if past Presidents have not had people who, even relatives, who were convicted or worse? Or who spoke of this country in such derogatory terms as to make people wonder how they could sit in their audience and listen to them spew their HATE? Take your T.D.S blinders off and smell your hypocrisy.
No, Republican Presidents have been surrounding themselves with creatures like Stone since Nixon. Black, Manafort and Stone, a political advisory firm created by Manafort, Stone and their partner, Black, supported Reagan, GHW Bush and other Republican candidates in the 1980s and the 90s.
2
To what extent do these so called dirty tricksters promote and perhaps fund third party candidacies, particularly in swing states.
I suppose it is very much part of the program.
8
I often visit a friend serving time in a federal penitentiary. Relatively low security but still very hard time. I can assure Stone that spending his next ten to twenty years in such a place he won't want any "attention." Nor will it help him being "infamous."
19
No matter how slimy,crooked,double dealing slime bag Mr Stone may be,his early morning arrest by armed swat team is horribly wrong...
when only a phone call, a knock on the door by the local sheriff was needed. We are making the process part of the punishment...when that person is still supposed to be considered innocent.
Regardless of hot political passions right and left, every thinking American should be appalled in such politically related arrests and jailings.
86
@Lane They needed to seize evidence, including electronic devices, and did so. They can't do that with an advance phone call saying they're coming.
524
@Lane I believe the heavy handed tactics, especially in regards to surprise, before dawn, etc. has everything to do with destruction of evidence. If you call a possibly guilty person and ask them kindly to come on down to the precinct, the chance that they leave everything where it is for the resultant search and seizure is slim to none. As I’ve read, they were less interested in Stone himself than they’re my were his electronic devices.
379
@Lane The motive behind the raid was to insure that evidence was not destroyed, which they obviously had a notion was going to occur if they did not act quickly. If there was enough evidence of wrongdoing, then they were perfectly justified to conduct an early morning raid. He is still innocent until PROVEN guilty, but your theory would mean that no one could be arrested for doing any crime until the case went through the courts? That is not how the judicial system works. Let the system operate the way it was intended, and let truth prevail.
227
At the end of the day, there is no one to blame for this current disgrace of a President but the 35% of Americans who harbor a core of reprehensible beliefs regarding race (white is best) the role of women (subordinate to men is best) and governance (a bully authoritarian leader is best).
They somehow managed to stumble their way into victory with the help of dark artists such as Stone, Bannon, and Trump himself in 2016. They’ll soon be sidelined and (thankfully )powerless to bully the rest of us into accepting a set of crackpot policy solutions (walls, Muslim bans, Space Forces) and lobbyist-wrtten laws thar destroy the environment, lower taxes on the super-wealthy, and on and on.
Out of power, they might, however be more dangerous, if such a thing is possible. Electoral defeat will metastasize their resentment only further. I don’t think there will be fewer armed militias, or acts of violence toward immigrants and people of color during say, a Kirsten Gillbrand Presidency.
The 35% is a vital niche market whose social media ad revenue generation, Sean Hannity book sales, and loyal Liberty Media listeners crushing all ratings books will thrive and grow. Such a loyal market of customers is just too profitable.
55
@John C
The cat is out of the bag on this matter. It will take generations of a proper education and exposure to 'others' in the rural areas of the country for us to mature and reach our potential as citizens and business leaders. We cannot rely on our current batch of corporate owned self-serving politicians, the under-educated and the right wing nut job media to be of any help to progress.
5
I've known a lot of people who are good at spouting platitudes the way some people quote scripture. It may seem impressive at first, but when challenged, it becomes apparent that they've sacrificed critical thinking in favor of rote memorization. It isn't noticeable as long as they stick with others like themselves. Winning the presidency may be the worse thing that ever happened to Donald in the sense that it's given exposure to the rather slimy creatures he's chosen to associate with.
15
Ms Dowd. you helped put Trump in the White House, and that helped give Stone and Manafort and the rest of that crowd power. You did it by relentlessly attacking Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton.
Readers deserve a mea culpa. We're still waiting.
162
@Sean Exactly. You nailed it Sean.
30
@Sean
If a candidate can't take the heat from an op-ed journalist, maybe, just maybe she was the wrong candidate. Don't get me wrong. I would be sleeping much better with Clinton in the WH.
2016 was hers to win. But she was lost in a bubble of priviledge and cash from the rich. She was tone deaf when it came to the real woes in America. She didn't get it.
She might have retrieved it once she got the nomination. But instead of embracing the huge groundswell of support for that "radical" called Bernie, she walked a carefully startegized mind numbing middle ground that inspired nobody. She might have won if so many Bernie folks had not stayed home.
Clinton could have completely eviscerated Trump but was too worried about being an "angry woman". She was too careful. Lessons learned by the Dems, hopefully.
25
@Sean
Maureen told the 100% truth when she exposed the corrupt and sleazy Clintons, and has NOTHING to apologize for. On the contrary, I hope she has EVIDENCE for characterizing Stone's testimony fales, or she will be the laughing stock.
Trump won not because he is any good, but because he saved us from seeing their corrupt majesties in the Oval Office AGAIN.
5
Roger Stone is a product of the Republican Party extreme right wing. He wasn't exactly raised by wolves, but Roy Cohn's early influence on him is the next best thing.
And what a willing student Stone was. It is no surprise at all that he worshiped Richard Nixon and has a tat of Tricky Dicky's face on his upper back. Two crooks in a pod.
What an incredibly odd cast of characters, liars all, people whose credo is deny everything even if they have pictures.
Book 'em, Danno. And pronto.
90
I never imagined that there could be anyone more corrupt, cynical, and calculating than Nixon. I needed a more active imagination.
Trump puts Nixon to shame; the earlier president comes off as slightly quaint because, although he was a total crook, he had an odd belief that laws had some meaning, even while breaking them. Maybe that is because he was trained as a lawyer, a profession that requires more discipline than Trump has ever been forced to achieve. Trump believes in nothing; so where Nixon finally felt his behavior encounter the boundaries imposed by the law, Trump will feel no such restraint. He's like a dog who sees a squirrel and blasts through his electric fence shock collar; he wants the squirrel and nothing can stop him. Except maybe a car.
Yes, Stone is the through line that connects both Trump and Nixon to the abhorrent Roy Cohn. There cannot be enough disgrace, impeachment, or prison to rid us of these kind of people. Let us give Trump and Stone exactly what will fill them with horror: our un-Nixon-adorned backs. They deserve no attention or consideration from anyone on the planet; let them fall into deserved obscurity.
79
Dowd does a great job of capturing the dark arts persona of this villain from Roy Cohn, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and now Donald Trump.
Whether it was the silent majority, welfare queens or the murderers and rapists south of the border, the point of Stone’s life was to latch onto to GOP coattails to scare white people about people not looking quite like them.
It worked for Nixon, Reagan, George HW Bush( Willie Horton but that was by another dark arts pro) and Donald Trump.
When will white people learn that they have been conned by the likes of Stone and Trump?
46
@JT FLORIDA
The swamp is being drained, but not by Trump.......
1
@JT FLORIDA
That dark artist of Willie Horton was Lee Atwater, one of the partners of the lobbying firm whose other partners were, yes, Manafort and Roger Stone.
2
BTW, I don't think Manny's hair has turned grey, just grew out and returned to the natural shade of grey it was already.
Stone goes down; Sweet.
Now comes Jr., JK, Bannon, then the big tuna.
Let's hope Nunes gets it somehow.
55
@Chris Morris-Yep. Rep. Nunes will have his time in the barrel, repeating Roger Stone's words. The former House Intel Chair was closely allied with Gen Flynn during his controversial tenure at the DIA and in spring 2016, Nunes began providing "private intel briefings" to the Trump campaign. Nunes actively attempted to derail House, Senate, DoJ, FBI, and the Special Prosecutor's investigations into Russian interference. Perhaps his own complicity and push to move the U.S. forward command from Germany to Azores where he's been buying up property has something to do with it? Nunes also supports Iowa white nationalist Steve King. Sigh.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/02/devin-nunes-and-the-invention-of-fake-oversight/553694
https://themoscowproject.org/explainers/the-nunes-file
https://patribotics.blog/2018/03/10/did-carter-page-call-devin-nunes-from-moscow
Devin Nunes’s Family Farm is Hiding a Politically Explosive Secret
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a23471864/devin-nunes-family-farm-iowa-california
16
Stone is regular in GOP politics.
It was reported that the highly touted human being, James Addison Baker III, the Bushies Tom Hayden, since we are using Godfather metaphors, was reported to have said to someone in the 2000 FL recount "Get me Roger Stone."
14
It's always the guys who look like they couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag who talk tough.
42
Wouldn't want to mess up their hair.
2
Stone lives in a dog-eat-dog world protected by two Yorkies?
Clearly he should have gotten himself a male cattle dog instead!
Except the cattle dog may have been the dominant one of the pair instead. It takes more than a loud mouth plus traitorous actions to earn a cattle dog's loyalty, fairness and love are required too.
All of the worst miscreants coming out of the republican party these last two decades were once in the Nixon White House. It's fitting that they're the ones, besides Trump himself, who are now undermining the republicans.
Give these dogs a little more leash and they'll dig themselves a grave, too.
10
The fact that this guy was a "successful" Washington operative tells one that a cold cash campaign contribution will open the doors in Washington and that no consultant is too sleazy and no patron too reprehensible.
As we read this, the money from Saudi Arabia oozes its way around Washington, silently, 24-hours a day, seven days a week. What crime?
Next week, a little legitimacy for whatever dictator in Africa stole an election last week. What crime?
A sympathetic ear for the opioid lobbyist, maestro! Crime?No, just business as usual.
29
Simple question. Does he not naturally love his country? Does he not understand that hate mongering is toxic to the country?
13
These people don't care, period.
4
"Dark Arts" my foot. The man makes his living by lying, cheating, and stealing. But hey! He looks good doing it, made a ton of money! Lock him up.
32
Trump and Stone don't seem to realize that "ratting" means telling the truth about an associate. Liars like these two always denounce any truth tellers as they know that if the naked truth about their secrets ever comes out fully, they are in big trouble, unless protected by their pals the GOP, who also want the truth hidden.
Frauds and con men like Stone and Trump spend their lives in a constant state of denying facts. Frauds and con men live by lying. Truth and those who tell it must be destroyed in order for those without character to attain wealth and power. The current administration and much of the GOP behave like defense attorneys most of the time. Protect the guilty, denounce the innocent.
The GOP of today behaves exactly as Henry Wallace described in your paper in 1944 in his essay about American Fascism, and how technology would aid and abet the ideology of total selfishness more in the future by spreading disinformation like wildfire(my word). Wallace would be aghast at how accurate his 75 year old words turned out to be.
Stone's and Trump's fury over anyone spilling the straight dope about them tells us what kind of men they are. They give real rats a bad name!
24
I do hope Stephen Miller was watching the FBI take Stone down. He is so obviously cut from the same shabby cloth.
48
Maureen got me wondering what people like Roger Stone really are. They come with the same basic moving parts, but there is something missing. Humanity.
Anthropologists tell us that there is only one species of human being presently in existence. Homo sapiens — "wise man" — a highly evolved social creature that has inhabited Earth for about 300,000 years.
When I first heard fundamentalist Christian ministers say man has only been around for a few thousand years I scoffed. Nonsense. But now I'm starting to wonder. Perhaps the Roger Stones that walk among us are a special breed onto themselves, a type of "man" that branched off and produced a whole new kind of animal, something completely alien to the altruistic, cooperative beings that made our society possible.
Pod people.
15
Stone is gonna go all the way in defending himself and Trump no matter how many lies it takes, playing for the pardon which he will receive as soon as he is convicted. The sorry state of our government and our politics kinda makes me sick.
12
Reading in recent days of this sad, pathetic man, I've been reminded of the simple truth of the Beatles' great line "And, in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make." I hope Stone has enjoyed his moment on the stage, because I suspect he will take very little love with him when he exits.
14
On second thought, Roger Stone isn't a loser, he is what America is all about, winning at all costs and strutting about with his wealth.
He grew rich treating the good like dirt, and honoring the murderous and destructive...
I live around hundreds of dirt poor people living under bridges and in rescue missions, most of whom are probably much more decent people than Stone. But he lives in comfort and finery, and they will live out their lives in squalor.
America is Roger Stone, and Roger Stone is America...look at our government and the Republicans in the Senate...look at who sits in power in the White House.
Hugh
42
Roger Stone has promised to make a statement after his arraignment in Washington, D.C. next week. If he is a true Nixon acolyte, he could probably say, “I am not a crook” while the gathered masses drown him out to chants of, “Lock him up, lock him up,” as they did after his Fort Lauderdale indictment on Friday. This is political theater at its finest.
Meanwhile, after his former fixer, Michael Cohen, struck a plea deal with special counsel Mueller back in November, Trump had proudly proclaimed of Roger Stone, “Nice to know that some people still have ‘guts.’” How well those guts hold up with the prospect of jail time, might well determine if Trump’s 2008 “stone cold loser” moniker makes a comeback.
And yet, Trump and Stone have been friends for almost four decades – which must be a record for Trump. But then, if one of your longest lasting friends is like a character straight out of “The Sopranos,” and you are currently the president of the United States – that doesn’t bode well for you or for the country!
5
Let's just hope that Mueller can turn this Stone over reveal the real "dirt" that connects the dots between Trump, WikiLeaks, and Russia. We're just a Stone's throw away from The Don. Let's hope this is the Stone the slays the Goliath of lies and the monstrous conspiracy that is darkening our democracy.
15
If there's any real justice left in our Judiciary, we'll see Stone, Manafort and ultimately Trump sporting matching khaki outfits, sharing a dormitory in The Camp at Allenwood.
Come to think of it, when all this is over and they actually build a Trump Presidential Library they can wallpaper it with all of the indictments handed down to these reprobates and ne'er-do- wells we have suffered all these years.
19
I ponder that daily. Seriously. Since the man doesn’t read—and will have left nothing but a trail of failed legislation—what will go in the Trump Presidential Library?
I can’t help but think of one of those brilliant NatGeo documentaries, with great whites being lured out of the deep by oily, fetid chum tossed in to tempt them. Oily and fetid are the kindest adjectives I can apply to the soon-to-be-turned Stone and his farce of an acolyte: we cannot know what irrefutable, actionable evidence our savior great white Mueller and team have accumulated soon enough.
10
Only a misanthrope, like Mr. Stone, would enjoy the knowledge that human folly and baseness are so easy to exploit. It's a wonder how his prideful immorality hasn't made him toxic to the very causes and people he works for. Even those politicians that share Mr. Stone's pessimistic world view make an effort to hide it from the public.
7
There is one positive difference between mobsters and this band of political criminals; mobsters kill each other off leaving no heirs.
6
Maybe after this presidency is over America will have had its fill of hucksters, tinsel celebrities, serial liars, and incompetence.
Is it too late to have a government of quiet, boring professionalism, where civility and statesmanship exist, where our leaders do their jobs and tell the truth?
28
@Madeline I haven't chosen my preferred Democratic candidate because what's the point at this stage? (Maybe Sherrod Brown...) But if you want boring professionalism, Michael Bloomberg comes to mind. He was a great antidote to the previous rude, obstreperous mayor here - Rudy Giuliani - and it was Bloomberg who really took over just a few months after 9-11 and helped the city get back on its feet. He's a huge philanthropist, supporting culture and education, and man who actually built a lasting business, the diametric opposite of Trump. And now he's working on gun control. He's an asset to the country whether in the private or public sphere and would draw talented people into government, in sharp contrast to the current White House occupant.
2
Perhaps for a couple of rounds. Then, based on our history, we'll be right back in the barrel.
1
If Stone could some how bring back Nixon to replace Donny I would certainly be in Roger Stone's corner. Nixon was a crook and a liar, but he was not our worst president. That dubious distinction will certainly belong to Donald J. Trump when our national nightmare 2.0 is finally over.
9
He may be a strategist but somehow taunting the FBI does not seem like a bright idea.
14
Is there anyone in the trump circle who isn't dirty? Does the bear Roger Stone in the woods?
10
Great for TV "breaking news," but nowhere near the final verdict: Did Team Trump betray America to Russia and why? This showboating loudmouth is small potatoes. Where are the indictments of Don, Jr. and Jared? The time for pussyfooting is over. Wrap this up, Mr. Mueller.
13
Stone's Nixon tattoo will be of great interest to his new mates in the big house.
8
Keep in mind he's a Republican hero and that should make us all pause because he represents a clear and present danger to democracy and that alone ought to make him a criminal all by itself.
14
There is more of a tendency to and towards evil and the dark side and the dark arts in America than there is to the good side. We all can have bad weeks, bad days, bad months, bad years and even bad decades.
President Trump should be able to find and recruit fresh, new dark side talent within a week or so. The President has proven that he can come up with stores of men and women who can work the bad angles and the bad angels of human nature. In a little over two (2) years as President, Mr. Trump has effectively dispatched the good-two shoes nature of the Obama Administration Recently President Trump has been able to shut down a goodly portion of the Government of The United States of America. He was able to keep Congress at bay and save taxpayers money which would have otherwise gone to the paychecks of Federal loafers, deadbeats, featherbedders and malingerers.
President Trump has been practicing his arts, dark or otherwise, for a long time, and he did succeed in becoming our President, and he was backed and supported in this by an American public citizenry which had had enough of the last past fifty to sixty years of failed, crooked, gridlocked, cancerous & toxic Government.
If it takes shutting down the Government in order to make it effective, then more, & all power to President Trump. We need a massive total overhaul of the Government of the United States & President Trump has shown that an independent, maverick such as he is can begin this process.
1
The mere fact that you are writing about these matters is in itself an indictment on the rule of law. The law has become a joke. Due process is more like payed progress using heavy hitting lawyers and Federalist Society appointed judges.
The coup d'etat has already occured. America is a failed state defending oil interests when it is exporting oil. It rattles allies and is looking for chaos in Asia.
However, the full might of the US government could not even defeat 30,000 Taliban and now Trump is threatening China. What a joke.
The Pentagon is being run by opportunists and peddlers of weapons without any thought going into strategy and tactics. A kind of reflex action to anyone who can spin a yarn and get funding. It does not seem to be coordinated.
After the chaos spreads and Trump and his bagmen wonder free with an NRA army replacing the FBI. Interning anyone who is not a MAGA MAN with Mr. Miller quietly looking for the final deportation solution.
It can happen because justice delayed is justice denied. The justice the majority of the electorate in America is seeking will be delayed enough that it will have no effect on the dystopian times we live in.
Chaos is Trump's goal. The more chaos the less civil society can form into an opposition. The Chaos is already here and soon the pardoned Mr. Stone will be made Trump's Reich Minister of Propaganda.
Trump succeeds because of the inaction of Mitch McConnell and the republican senate. Who was Paul Ryan? blahblahblah.....
16
What amazes is not that Trump, The GOP, et al. are correctly perceived by most here as hopelessly corrupted by their quest for power.
It is the implied assumption of purity on the part of any of the alternates. Did you all sleep through Hillary, Podesta, DNC corruption, lies, and secrets exposed in 2016?
It may be tough to swallow, but Trump was the cleanest dirty shirt we were offered.
If you support either of these parties you are already divide and conquered.
53
@NoParty - The Hillary/Podesta/DNC corruption was more smoke than fire. Crying "emails" and "Wikileaks" all the time gave the appearance of sneaky dealing, but when all was said and done, there wasn't really much there.
159
@NoParty Yeah, and you know what amazes me? That anyone could say that Trump was the cleanest dirty shirt we were offered, including amongst the Republican primary candidates; that the candidate who was ordered during the campaign go pay $25 million for defrauding people is considered by you to be cleaner than the one who was not; that just saying stuff for some people seems to be enough (I expect all organizations, family, people to have secrets and even lie on occasion, but what corruption are you talking about???); that anyone believes that Donald Trump's 72% rate of lying is equal or better than Hillary Clinton's 20% and make him "cleaner"....that so many Americans excuse far worse and more in Trump and then put forth false equivalencies...or worse, actually try to suggest that Trump was the cleanest candidate in 2016. I mean, wow. Why not just say that we should have the Mafia run law enforcement because it's a cleaner organization than the law enforcement we have since they, too, deal with lies, corruption and secrets.
270
@NoParty
None are so blind as those who refuse to see.
191
I'm weary of how the many crooks in this administration are valorized, even in pieces where they are supposedly being critiqued. We have to hear about their taste in suits, their money, their supposed brilliance, or 'provocateur' posturing. This drips with white male privilege, an impunity nobody else would receive. It is so very man-worship, and will we ever be done with that, please? These men are shredding our constitution on the daily. The most vulnerable are hurt worst of all. (Though the pain will catch up with most of us.) The damage they doing on our watch is deep. They're stealing resources and hope from working class, poor, and middle class alike - robbing our children of a future. They're fomenting the worst attitudes and values possible - dripping with contempt, anti-democratic, espousing violent racism and anti-womanism ad nauseum... and then they laugh all the way to the bank to cash their rich-people tax cuts paid for by our children and elders. They're not rock stars. They're not great actors on some storied stage. They're ugly, brutal thugs. I don't care what they wear, or who they go out with, or how much $ they have amassed, or what novels they read and quote. Tell it like it is. End the valorization of such criminals who show their contempt every day, for our country, our people, and our institutions. Stop lavishing them with the grace of non-stop attention paid, elegant narratives, and press, while the people they hurt worst languish unheard, unseen.
1451
Yes. I'm noticing more overt comparisons to characters from The Godfather.
58
@Anda
Your words speak to a deep and intrinsic truth.
102
@Anda...this is brilliantly said...the word “valorization” never more appropriately used.
Thank you for speaking truth to power so eloquently...our democracy raises her torch higher because of it, and I am proud to claim community with you.
140
The current Occupant is not so much an aberration of the Republican Party as a particularly uncouth manifestation of it. Stone worked on the campaigns of Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Jack Kemp, Bob Dole and Trump. Manafort was an advisor to the campaigns of Ford, Reagan, Bush The Elder and Trump. Trump, defending his engagement of Manafort as his Campaign Chairman, has remarked upon Manafort’s presence in the campaigns of prior Republican presidential campaigns.
13
From what I've seen of Roger Stone's sartorial senses, I'd say he has a Tom Wolfe jones. From the perspective of a Stone contemporary, I must add that the word "creep" was an accurate description of any 19 y-o male who was in thrall with Nixon, long before it became the name of a campaign effort.
18
What is amazing is that this whole situation appears to be a Keystone Kops episode, although the major players are not cops. There is a trail of texts, emails, even interviews on film and people like Stone and Junior and the Princeling thought that someone like Mueller would be so incompetent as to ignore these trails?
Perhaps more frightening is that some of the players hold positions of responsibility in the Federal government.
16
No, Keystone Cop indicates random blundering. There’s nothing bungling about this. These Americans have been laser-focused on their goal and the plan to get there for at least a generation. They were willing to plan, work the system, do the dirty work, slip in and out undetected to get there— much like a Navy Seal minus the bravery and moral compass.
21
@AnnaFarrar...I do not necessarily disagree with your comment. However, one would think with all the plotting and scheming that there would be some attempt to cover their tracks. Nixon is a perfect example of what NOT to do.
2
I think the machine built was so well-planned and well-membered that they put little effort into covering tracks—maybe enjoying their signature being visible to one another —like a serial killer who sends clues to the police. In any case having a confident grip on SCOTUS and POTUS almost eliminated the need to cover.
And, that non-tech generation probably underestimated the life span and detectability of IT.
1
It is time for the Republican Party to practice some serious introspection. Starting with Atwater/Gingrich/DeLay, moving to the catastrophic Reagan "Trickle-down economics", from which we cannot extricate ourselves, and on to the Rove/Cheney and now Trump/McConnell/Limbaugh/Coulter/Stone Age...the politics of cynicism, darkness, fear, exploiting other people's weaknesses, including its own base's, dirty trick and bad-faith have consumed the GOP and have done so much damage to the country (making it ironic that, when the Republican Party has taken on the role of Mephistopheles and Ayn Rand in our politics, it nonetheless claims to be a party of Christian and moral values). It's time for the Republican Party to shed its tendency to gravitate toward darkness and get healthy again.
56
@Virginia Very astute comment, but Virginia, there truly is no Republican Santa Claus sledding in to rescue the Party. Instead, I predict mysterious funding of multiple "third-party" candidates will again splinter the Democratic vote in 2020. Who were those candidates in 2016 and where are they now?
4
@Virginia
Brilliant summation, thank you Virginia!
2
@Virginia Won't happen.
How come Stone appeared as unruffled and confident as he did after his indictment? He has been assured a pardon, in return for keeping quiet. Or, lying about what happened is actually a more attractive proposition than revealing a more ghastly, catastrophic secret.
Wow.
22
@AP917
A stone cannot ever be said to be anything other than a stone, consequently devoid of anything but stone cold matter, so Stone is just than, an insignificant piece of detritus, dross ...
2
So Roger Stone's two dogs were perturbed by their master's arrest. I really DO feel sorry for the dogs because the mess that befell their household on Friday morning had nothing to do with any misdeed they might have committed.
Poor Nydia, Stone's wife, is now down to two dogs. Fortunately for her, she's lost the least beloved of the three, and she's now free to swing with the best sexagenarians available from the "personals" ads of America's most prestigious online media outlets.
15
@John lebaron Roger is out on bail, unlike many in this country who can't afford bail. He also claims he doesn't have a valid passport. That should be checked.
1
"Racial dog whistling" and dog napping suggest the Trump Republican Party has gone to the dogs. (Apologies to canines.)
Nixon's coalition doesn't exist anymore. This is decades later, and the villains of his age like Roy Cohn and Roger Stone are comic book characters.
Any silent majority must include women who are half the population. Combined with minorities and young people, the new silent majority is speaking out.
Racists and bigots and Trump Republicans have also turned on law-and-order, not surprising with Trump's affinity for mobsters, homegrown or Russian, as well as the 100 plus campaign contacts with Russians close to the Kremlin.
The fringes of the right wing like Stone, Coulter, Hannity and others pride themselves on being Svengalis. They aren't. Their delusions and conspiracies may be shared by Trump along with an enormous serving of bigotry and Fox propaganda.
Trump's mythical base may buy into this but they are the ice cream soldiers of our day--melting away.
New heroes rise. Female, black, brown, and men respectful of others and of American ideals of equality.
28
Roger Stone and Donald Trump represent the core foundation, the essential philosophical worldview of the Republican Party and the conservative movement. We have suffered this for 50 years. This is why one can only understand how the Republican Party operates by understanding organized crimes. The Republican Party by its very nature, at is core, is a criminal enterprise. Trump won for a reason and all Republicans protect him for a reason. Finding out what Trump did and all who helped me will destroy the Party and shake American democracy to its knees.
48
@BillC A good question is whether money pouring into many Republican candidates' coffers from the National Rifle Association originated in Russia.
6
I think we're all wondering when being Donald Trump is going to catch up with Donald Trump. I wish the golf cart would hurry up already. We're getting tired of waiting. However, he's not the only piece left in the jigsaw puzzle. We still have other shady characters to get through before this is done.
The most obvious of course is Don Jr. Either his indictment is sealed or Mueller is holding back for strategic reasons. There's at least one more name waiting for a day in court. I'll wager there are more. Jared Kushner and Steve Bannon come to mind. Basically anyone involved with the Trump campaign really. Mike Pence anyone?
I'm glad Stone's vileness finally trapped him in something bigger than he can control. He deserves that much and worse. As we saw with the Cohen raid though, sorting through heaps of evidence takes awhile. The Stone raid probably pushes Mueller's conclusion back all the way through 2019. We've still got awhile to wait. Sigh...
49
@Andy. Seeing Jared and Trump clan in jail will give me satisfaction and a good first step for our democracy.
I will also add trump watcout for Jared his family, father/uncle, demonstrated his roots, 'acorn from the same tree', that he will turn on Trump for self preservation.
15
@Andy...I suspect that with the Stone indictment, and short of Trump Mueller interview, Mueller is close to finalizing his report.
3
Congratulations, Roger Stone! With that Nixon tattoo on your back you will be the toast of Cell Block 11. They'll be lining up to get a closer view.
81
Never forget that these creeps were able to do what they did because they were enabled by 50 years of right-wing and Republican planning and activism, and Democratic cluelessness, and to some extent collusion. It won't change much if all we get rid of is a few creeps at the top. All of us will be paying for their crimes and mess for years, decades. Get rid of Citizens United, then make government shutdown a crime, as a modest start. Maybe we would get a little breathing space for politics and the economy to start some change.
137
What great theater Maureen. Wonderful! The bad guys act up, get caught, go to jail, write books, apologize, are forgiven, and teach a new set of bad guys how to be bad. The public loves it. TeeVee series on the way.
Isn't America great? Nobody does corruption better than Republicans. What better reason to vote for them---again?
26
No... the Democrats somehow are just better at avoiding indictment. They’re very good at corruption too. Both parties stink.
1
"Hate is a stronger motivator than love."
Perhaps, at times. But love endures. It lasts, and it always builds a structure that is strong; almost permanent to those so transfixed. Hatred burns out. As someone once said it is an acid that consumes the vessel within which it resides. In its wake it leaves nothing but ash.
I'll take the path of love.
John~
American Net'Zen
37
@John--I think he was wrong. He meant FEAR is a stronger motivator than love.
3
@John
Most people who believe that hate is stronger than love are pretty practiced in hate, but generally so unskilled in and ignorant of love that they don't even know what the word means in its larger sense.
If hate were truly stronger than love, we'd be remembering and celebrating a whole different set of people.
@Pat: HA! Perhaps. But hate, or fear. Same difference? ;-)
Stone is Johnny two-face: he threatens to harm a security dog then uses his own two dogs' reaction to his early-morning arrest as proof of the FBI's perceived heavy-handed tactics. He trumpets his dedication to "the truth" while lying (all his life) and throughout the Mueller investigation--threatening former criminal associates if they cooperate with--i.e. tell the truth to--the feds. He professes patriotism while working in league with his country's greatest adversary to undermine an American presidential election. It is no wonder anyone this duplicitous should be an acolyte of Richard Nixon and a life-long driving force in the Republican Party. That's the way the GOP grows its alleged leaders--by rewarding them for wrecking American values without demonstrating any consciousness of guilt.
663
@cmary
Stone is a fighter. I wouldn't be surprised if he beat Mueller's pit bulls in court.
Yes, cmary, corruption set in a the republican party - apparently thanks to Stone, Cheney, Rumsfeld and other mafia operatives - when they planted Nixon in OUR white house. America and the world were reeling from the murders of JFK, Martin Luther King, Jr and Bobby Kennedy and basically shut down, which allowed the crooks to take over.
I saw a photo yesterday of Stone and Nixon when Nixon supposedly "won" the first election but can't find the link.
It was a close-up shot of the two crazies grinning like the horrible, evil people they are/were. Please post a link if you have one. The world needs to see what corruption and demented greed look like.
12
I'm not sure which are the dogs and which are the humans in this saga.
21
@PS Oh I am. Dogs never lie, which is why we love them so. I'll take a good dog any day.
25
"Trump ... called the strategist 'a stone-cold loser,' a state Trump himself has been relegated to this past week, courtesy of Nancy Pelosi."
The shutdown revealed that Trump has never cared if people get paid or not, and he does not care about public safety regarding things like food quality and air travel. He doesn't care about protests. And he knows he can shut down the government again.
Trump desperately wants the State of the Union Address. He craves a large prime-time audience not only so he can talk about the wall but also about these arrests and how he is being persecuted by Mueller. Nancy Pelosi should make clear to Trump that unless he promises not to again make the American people pawns in his game, he will not be allowed to appear in the House Chamber. Pelosi needs to thwart and frustrate Trump to continue to drive him crazy.
Trump cannot be president for life like the other autocrats he admires. He is terrified of losing power and then his business empire.
Every time Trump disrupts American life with something like the shutdown, orchestrated as part of his petty agenda, Mueller should arrest more of the cronies in Trump's inner circle. This strategy will help keep Trump at bay, along with Pelosi's best efforts, until Mueller can complete his work. This is our best hope to minimize collateral damage as we seek the truth from the likes of Stone and Manafort.
23
@Blue Moon--She has already canceled the speech indefinitely.
3
The perpetual smirk on Roger Stone's face suggests that he considers everything a joke, a kind of cosmic game in which there are no rules, and the person who is most clever at cheating the system wins - which is precisely why he and President Trump have been longtime "friends" (if that's how one defines some kind of sick friendship).
Well, the law is not a game, and no amount of smirks, bullying, and brashness will save Roger Stone if the evidence convicts him. Let's see how well his Nixon tattoo serves him when he's scrubbing prison toilets.
47
Compare a photo of Roger Stone as a young man with a photo of Stephen Miller. Their facial expressions in the photos, their sociopathic mindsets, are creepily alike. It's as if a cloning experiment has been going on the past couple of decades.
37
@Mike T
Yes, Stone and Miller are equally creepy and amoral. For a little more fun, compare a photo of Roger Stone (preferably one with his stupid sun glasses on) with one of the Muppet character Zoot, the saxiphone playing blue guy. The resemblance is uncanny.
1
At this point I care more about Trump's whining than I do about his and Stone's lives of corruption. Trump keeps whining about his wall. He had two chances to get his wall in his first two years, during the budget reconciliation process, where he would only have needed 50 votes in the senate plus Pence. But he chose to waste those two opportunities to try, but fail, to repeal Obamacare and to pass a billion dollar plus tax cut for persons like him. When Trump was at his beloved Penn, LBJ was president. After LBJ became president as the result of a tragic historical event, his aides didn't want him to take on the civil rights act as his first piece of major legislation. He said, no, we only get a 6 month honeymoon so I am teeing it up first. That was a lesson Trump obviously never learned.
22
@James Ricciardi--He also took a vow to uphold and defend our nation's laws. And the ACA has been a law since 2010. He has no idea what it means to take an oath.
4
Stone is currently on a high, delusional platform that ignores reality at a personal level. For a cadre of Trump's campaign staffers who relish the rewards of the dark arts, they either did not truly know or understand that the fishbowl of the United States presidential race and subsequent office cannot be controlled, cajoled, or re-framed with untruths fast enough. The radar of national security is always on, and this has been the biggest mistake of Trump's Republican Party and their dark donors. The United States government works better than imagined. It's too big, and too brilliant to squash with fast lies, paranoid fantasies and extorted promises to enemies of the state. Stone has no idea what his life is becoming. His Nixon parade yesterday will be his last.
39
@purpledot
"His Nixon parade yesterday will be his last." From your keyboard to God's eyes!"
I had to fact-check the Nixon tattoo... Found it to be true. Now, if there isn’t room for a tattoo of Trump on his back, I could suggest another place that may even be more appropriate...
27
@John M.
Hey John, how low can it get? Like Chaim Rosemarin said above, Stone's Cell Block 11 buddies will be having an even better time with Trump's tattoo on his back(end?)!
4
Roger, "Anything To Win", Stone now appears to have everything to lose, and it could hardly happen to a more deserving man.
If you've only read about his efforts to be a world famous king maker, watching the documentary, "Get Me Roger Stone", will paint in starker detail a life unbounded by any allegiance to morality. He is a despicable human being, but Stone doesn't care what we think of him, only that we do.
Stone and Trump have always been attracted to each other, and unsurprisingly, they have shared an admiration for one of the more evil men in our country's past, Roy Cohn. Between the three of them, we have a triumvirate representative of the darkest of our natures, the same examples of the human stain that has plagued mankind since the beginning of time.
Cohn has gone on without ever being fully held accountable on Earth for his sins, but there must be no such escape for Roger Stone or Donald Trump. They have cost us too much, and our children need to see good triumph over venality; our shared future as a decent people depends upon it.
31
All I can say is that today I went to the salon, and one of the salon workers mocked the voice of an African American on the radio. Then she told me that she hoped the wall would be built soon, to keep "them" all out. "They" are bringing diseases and bugs. I don't live in the deep south or the midwest. Roger Stone's hate spin has taken decades to solidify, but I fear it's here to stay.
32
@Democracy The fear and hate will stay if we all do not take care of the fear and hate in our own backyards rather than pointing at the fear and hate in our neighbors' yards.
5
@Democracy, did you object to the salon worker? Did you defend 'them' to her so she'll realize her opinions are not acceptable?
We can't do much as individuals, but let's do what we can, when we can.
9
I hope at a minimum you describe your encounter with this woman on yelp. People should know what kind of spew they’ll be exposed to if they go to that salon.
3
Ever get the feeling that the Mueller Report is going to be seen as the sequel to Democracy in America?
4
Stone is not going to care for the drab colors and indifferent cuisine of the federal pen.
Time for Stone to flip.
9
@Charles. There will be a lot of orange, so he should feel as if he is amongst friends.
2
Everyday that someone is charged with subverting our democracy is a day to have hope for our country.
25
I used to think that people with absolutely NO redeeming qualities were few and far between, but rest assured that if they’re out there, Trump and the GOP will find them and foist them on us.
Perhaps I am being a tad harsh on Roger Stone, who, after all, has the name of someone else tattooed on his back, whereas the only thing I can imagine our raging narcissist-in-chief having tattooed on his back is “I, me, mine” - in all caps.
13
I wish that “conservative” Americans would finally wake up to the reality that the GOP IS Stone, Manafort, Atwater, Agnew, Nixon, Cheney and so on. Trump is only the final incarnation of decades of illegality, shady backroom dealing, dark money, even darker powers and total disdain for the rules of law and the principles of Democracy.
I look forward to the day when all the shady dealers will be locked away in jail, their assets seized, and the dark money elites finally exposed in the public view where they will hopefully shrivel up and die like the vampires that they are.
23
I'd like to think Stone will come to regret his life of crime in prison, but something tells me he's been looking forward to it for a while now.
1
The American people, if they have the sense to watch, are seeing the creatures that inhabit the bottom of the swamp. Stone, Manafort, Trump, and the fellow travelers, all opportunists, all willing to sell out to the highest bidder, foreign (Putin) or domestic (Koch, Adelson?), are on view. Now they, the American people, have to decide who they themselves are.
23
This cabal of former "Young Republicans" Manafort, Stone, Gates, et al who came up under a party machine dominated by Lee Atwater are finally getting their well deserved comeuppance. Sadly, not before their near destruction of this country's democratic institutions. This could be the end of an era for Republicans and an opportunity for some honest soul searching. Do they want to be a party with serious ideas, or continue to be peddlers of bombast and fear whose sole endgame is the accumulation of power and wealth for the few and misery for many?
17
The Big Question: During the past several decades has Stone been playing Trump, or vice versa??
Stone has an unbridled sense of self-confidence and accomplishment, while Trump is a hollow barrel of insecurity and failure, masquerading as a success with a mile-long clown neck-tie and a Frankenstein haircut from the 50's.
When con meets con, they will inevitably tangle and beat each other to an ignoble end. Karma.
17
I am envisioning Stone practicing his skullduggery and dark arts in a prison jumpsuit behind bars. It is a fitting ending for an amoral and evil man.
Thank you to Robert Mueller and your excellent team for your meticulous investigations, a rare light in the dark days of Trump.
14
Remember that great story the Times published on May 29th, 2017 about Jared Kushner asking a sanctioned Russian banker and the Russian ambassador for a back channel to private individuals in Russia so that US intelligence officials couldn't listen to his conversations?
It turned out that Kushner was so compromised that he could not get a security clearance.
Small wonder.
Then suddenly - Kushner and 30 others got clearances.
Amazing, huh?
But to finish up on the story, Stone had received a back channel communications circuit that was denied to Kushner, and Jared was jealous.
Now that circuit is in Mueller's hands, at last.
No one cares about a toad like Stone. He'll end his life in jail, and we will forget all about him.
What we really wanted was a fantastically well-encrypted tool of the GRU and the FSB.
And let's see what Mueller has discovered about Putin, his wealth, the Russian apartment bombings in 1999, the poisonings and assassinations in the the US and the UK, the shoot down of the airliner over Ukraine, his murders of reporters in and out of Russia with GRU and FSB resources.
There is a reason for the sanctions, and the Magnitsky Act.
So little time, so many crimes for Putin and Trump.
Roger Stone is a footnote.
27
"Hate is a stronger motivator than love", really says it all.
Both Stone and Trump have lived by slimy principles, forgetting that this can backfire in a spectacular way.
5
He's surely a hero to some, a mentor to others and a role model to many lobbyists and pols in DC. But to me, he's as loathsome a creature as they come. The embodiment of all that's wrong in politics and society today.
Oh, how I wish he'll spend years in a cell in a 'normal' prison somewhere - rather than some country club facility - where days are long and boring and the nights are endless. But alas, I doubt this will be. The good old boy network just won't let that happen.
Thanks to Dowd for a wonderfully written epitaph of a character who's work I hope is dead for good. An even bigger thank you to Mueller for giving us this moment of poetic justice - however fleeting it might prove to be.
7
"Manafort's hair is now almost completely white" -- because he no longer has access to a bespoke hair-colorist.
15
Unabashedly Roger Stone is arrogance personified. His two fingers/two arms outstretched Nixonian stance is absurd and he doesn't care. He's an admirer of political dirty tricks who has a Nixon tattoo on his back so that alone speaks volumes for the question of his guilt w.r.t. Mueller's indictment. Oh, and keep in mind, Mueller's team does not issue casual indictments and they haven't lost an indictment case yet so Stone's goose is cooked.
While I loathe Biblical quotes, it seems Proverbs 16:18 is fitting for Stone and the Evangelical crowd who still blindly pledge allegiance to Trump.... “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.”
Stone will fall. Other Trump campaigners will soon be indicted. Trump's ability to claim innocence to charges of colluding with Russian in the 2016 election and obstructing justice are failing much as did his useless government shutdown.
Make America great... obviously that was never Trump's intention.
10
@Question Everything
Here's another quote but from Longfellow: Whom the Gods would destroy they first make mad.
The Gods are out to destroy Trump and can anyone honestly say he's not well on his way to madness?
Robert Mueller is Trump's Nemesis.
Nemesis is on the side of truth and justice. Trump isn't. Guess who wins.
5
I hope that Roger Stone is never brought to trial before a jury of 12 average American citizens. Overwhelming amounts of evidence could be presented but I'm not sure he could ever be convicted. Just as Trump, if impeached, will never be convicted by a jury of our esteemed senators.
We're living in a reality show world. Pogo got it right. "We have met the enemy and he is us."
7
"You are known by the company you keep". Never has this been more true than it is right now. We have a president whose company he keeps are a reflection of himself. The company Trump keeps, like himself, are liars, frauds, ruthless, dangerous, threatening, crude, greedy, and extremely amoral. Manafort, Cohen, Stone, and( it pains me to say) Flynn all are poured from the same mold Trump was poured from, as were many others in Trump's circle, including Trump's own sons and his clueless son-in-law. It was Trump's "brilliant" son-in-law who advised Trump to "hang tough" while the government shutdown dragged on and people endured unnecessary hardships. Government workers suffered for nothing because when Trump relented, we were right back to where we were on December 22nd.
I don't know where all these indictments against the bizarre Mr. Stone and others are headed. I am hoping Mr. Mueller's investigation will result in the removal from office of Trump along with his associates, including Pence, who should not escape unscathed from this farce of a presidency he supports.
This presidency is one of unimaginable ineptness, with unconscionable behavior being the norm of Trump and all associated with him. Trump and his entourage are incorrigible thugs like Trump mentor Putin and Trump's pen pal Kim Jong-un.
14
If character is fate, then hopefully we are witnessing the demise of three scoundrels who just all might get their just desserts.
Manafort, the super slick corrupt lobbyist, already languishing in a jail cell, turning grey, and looking haggard with plenty of time to reflect on his deeds.
Stone finally being brought up on charges,with certain jail time, that will starch the color out of this dandies wardrobe and box him in a cage deprived of the bright lights he has always craved.
And Trump, the ultimate con man, being ensnared by the truth which will peel away the phony image he so carefully cultivated over a lifetime.
Could it be the bell is actually tolling on their final acts.
14
Thank heaven to Robert Mueller for not leaving a Stone unturned.
There will be more fireworks to come in Robert Mueller’s reports.
8
A month after Donald J. Trump announced his presidential campaign in 2015, he went to Moscow for the 60th birthday of Aras Agalarov, a Russian billionaire, hedging on his attendance until they told him he may get an audience with Putin.
Trump and Stone call their fellow criminals rats - but Trump's Russian collusion has been hiding in plain sight for so long, his partners in crime are not rats - his supporters are blind mice.
13
While the side shows go on McConnell is corrupting the Federal Judicial system with right wing political hacks. Watch the sleight of hand.
10
Muller’s indictments are slowly painting a picture of the real story behind Trump and the Russians. I am afraid that a Barr lead Justice Department will try to bury the complete story of Russian interference in our election. Let’s hope that a modern Daniel Ellsberg is serving in the Muller organization.
7
There is a line in The American President by Aaron Sorkin “How do you have patience with people who claim to love America, but clearly can’t stand Americans.”.
This sums of the trump administration and the republicans in Congress. They wrap themselves up in the flag for a photo-op but undermine our democracy at every opportunity.
7
Roger Stone caught in the Cat’s Cradle of Lies, how app a metaphor. Forty-five years since his spiritual Godfather Richard Nixon stepped aboard Marine One on his final chapter in a tragic political play. Stone is a Russian doll in a nest of dolls each leading to the next and soon the heart of the nest, Donald Trump. Is anyone surprised that we are here at the brink? Even his most devoted of the faithful, expected this, waiting for the fulfillment of their darkest prophecies. Now here we are Trump cornered, Trump the “Man in the High Castle”. It is fitting, it is karma and it has been a long time coming.
8
What I wouldn't give to see the expression on Roger Stone's face the first time that steel door closes behind him.
Prison has a great reputation for removing the smirk from almost anyone's face.
As for Donald Trump? I don't think he has anything to really worry about. He's such a persuasive liar that when he finally does go to jail, he'll just tell everyone he's fine, and that they've simply "redecorated" Mar-A-Lago. And 40% of the voting public will believe it.
Who knows? Maybe he'll be the first candidate to run a campaign from prison - and win! Would it really surprise anyone at this point?
3
@Chicago Guy
34% is not a majority. Trump's brigade of fools is dwindling. Throwaway protest votes for him won't ever happen again.
The Trump ship of bluff has sailed.
1
Stone’s philosophy might be, “whatever works”, but the sartorial splendor doesn’t think things through, enough!
If he sold just five suits, eight shirts and a dozen pair of jockey shorts, he’d be able to make monthly mortgage payments on half the 800,000 folks affected by the shutdown!
How popular would he be? How could the government prosecute him if the result was a national rebellion?
However, I wouldn’t put it past Stone to buy knockoff clothes in the dingy basements of Mott Street rice shops. Fear of being found out, I guess?
3
Stone got careless. Pure and simple. He forgot that it's never smart to commit perjury, especially when it requires corroboration to remain hidden. He also forgot that we still have decent, powerful people -- like Mueller -- who go after people like him. The arc of justice is long, eh, Roger Stone?
5
Roger Stone represents the soul of the republican party in all of its has-been glory. Mueller has him dead to rights, and Stone is banking on a pardon. Good luck with that, and good luck to the republican party in 2020. It's going to be a blood bath.
13
Thank you for a suscinct commentary.
I continue to be astonished that anyone can support Trump. What do the evanglists think of Stone? What can they possibly think about Trump? I cannot escape the conclusion that racism explains the attraction to Trump, as it clearly cannot be anything to do with the fact that he has done nothing to benefit those MAGA's who adore him.
9
"And your little dog, too!"
In Baum's 4th novel, the Wicked Witch of the West conspires with the other evil characters to divide up the land of Oz, and hurting little dogs as much as Stone did. Life imitates art. If Roger had been born into a family with the last name Love, would his past have been a different prologue? Thanks Ms. Dowd, I love how your writing makes us sharper.
6
Stone looked particularly "unadorned" in lefting his arms in victory - thereby exposing his cushioned mid-riff.
1
.... and it was particularly Nixon-esque. Not a good look.
1
It is hard to understand how a human being constructed entirely of sleaze can stand without instantly crumpling.
4
Do you know why Trump is so desperate for a wall at the Southern US border?
All the illegal immigrants Trump hired and then stiffed for two decades..... well, he’s afraid they’re coming for him, that he has a target on his back.
Thus the unreal obsession with MS-13 and non-existent terrorists and disease.
Trump sees his own possible death every day in the revenge he imagines everyone he’s hurt is plotting against him.
Perhaps many of his fans are of the same mindset?
Melville wrote a good short story about this, the fear of the slave’s revenge: Benito Cereno.
Trump probably overheard someone talking about it at a frat party one evening.
Because that’s what they do at frat parties, right? Discuss literature?
4
@Steven
HA! You may find examples of human nature in literature. Think Shakespeare. But it was keen observation of human behavior that is the basis of literature, not the other way around.
1
Time will tell whether Roger Stone is guilty or innocent. I am pretty certain though that his arrest did not require a predawn raid - complete with prearranged CNN media coverage - that was more appropriate for the arrest of Capone or El Chappo.
1
@Alan. As explained elsewhere, a pre-dawn raid was needed in order to ensure that his electronic devices could be recovered before Stone had an opportunity to tamper with them. The potential information on these devices could prove invaluable to Mueller and, hopefully, allow a certain someone his own chance to share a prison cell with any number of his former campaign aides.
6
@Alan
Yeah, there must have been some reason to go so tough on Mr. Stone.
4
@Alan
CNN just happened to be there on a stakeout. There had been clues that something was a about to happen. Nothing was prearranged.
4
Doesn't it disturb this columnist in the slightest, to wait for an occasion such as this to "pack it in" on her public fascination with such a man? This is extremely telling. Our ostensible mentors are so steeped in complicity with the slightest respect for such monsters, as to give them succor until the very last minute, and beyond. "A bad name" is not quite large enough for what this is.
1
After all that happened just this week and watching the Get Me Roger Stone documentary today I needed a shower. The 2020 contest is shaping up to be a choice of hope vs. fear. The big question won't be are you better off today than you were 4 years ago but do you want to keep living in fear for another 4 years.
4
https://twitter.com/maureendowd/status/1089258567515934720
I read The Times' subtitle for Maureen's article with interest: "Will the dawn raid on the Prince of Darkness shine a light on the Trump campaign's original sin?"
Ms. Dowd re-identifies overt and covert racism as that sin. And no one can reasonably dispute Trump and his alt-right advisors played the race-card "big league" during the 2016 campaign.
But I have contended (and will continue to) that the real original sin of Trump's campaign was his fake-populism. See https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/01/12/hello-i-must-be-going-is-michael-wolffs-book-fake-populist-trumps-exit-strategy/
Trump's rightist-populist critique of the ultra-stratified status quo and false promise of policies that would improve the living standard of low-status whites is the 'original sin" that got Trump elected (and just might get him re-elected).
Trump's demagoguery worked because his rhetoric acknowledged the foreclosure of opportunities for low-status whites due to the kind of-pro-1% globalization that occurred over the past half-century of political alternations between conservatism and lite-conservatism.
Trump neither understood nor meant a word of the "populist" lines Bannon and his alt-right merry pranksters got Trump to recite via teleprompter. It was all a ruse to reinstate Reagan-Bushes extreme conservatism.
Roger Stone ardently participated in this original sin: "Gaslighting" low-status whites and some gullible non-conservatives.
3
I hope Mr Mueller prosecutes the whole right wing conspiracy crowd. It seems they’ve all been connected to every outrageous political scandal for the last fifty years. Who knows—-maybe we will find out who shot JFK?
11
My mother said that you can judge people by the friends they have and the people they associate with.
Does trump even know anybody who isn't a cheat and sleazy?
7
Walls make good prisons.
5
I hope Stone becomes the most famous guy in his cell block. Let's see how he likes that.
7
Wow, Trump sure can pick'em, can't he?
Having Stone on your team almost certainly guaranteed violations of ethics and campaign laws. The worst of Trump's picks are lined up as if facing a firing squad from Mueller, the best of his cabinet have flown the coup, twitter storms following them out the door, their reputations and presumably their careers in tatters.
I am reminded of the movie line, "The last time there was a leak this big, Noah built himself an ark." The last time there was a gang of misfits, miscreants, cheaters, liars and presumptive criminals this large, a president, Nixon, was lucky to get out of town without a prison uniform as a parting gift.
It is time for "the art of the deal": let's allow Trump off the hook if he and his vice-president will resign forthwith. Please.
531
@Doug Terry Amen. Then Nancy P can take over.
48
@Doug Terry Let Trump off the hook? Gerald Ford let Nixon off the hook and I will never believe that that was not by prearrangement. I and most Americans who lived through that dark Republican presidency will never forgive Ford for that betrayal of the American people.
Sure, it sounds great to hope all the bad stuff will soon be forgotten and we can get back to "life as normal."
But many Americans are of the opinion that we ought to start imposing consequences on politicians and businessmen, no matter how high and mighty they may be, for their criminal and meretricious behavior. Half the bankers in the country should have been jailed for TANKING THE WORLD ECONOMY in 2008-2009. Instead, the highly-placed bankers serving in the Bush and Obama administrations made sure that the banks got paid every dime they claimed they were owed. Average Americans got hit with the body blow of high unemployment and a crumbling economy.
Letting Trump and his criminal minions off the hook will in no way be best for America. I think we can walk and chew gum at the same time: Keep the government up and running AND prosecute the criminals who conspired with Russia to steal a US presidential election.
63
@Doug Terry If Trump and his cronies are allowed to walk scot free, that would spell the end of this democracy. The next election cycle would bring forth all the Putin wannabees, thinking they have an easy out if they get caught committing crimes. Some would likely consider instituting martial law as their first order of business. We've seen that scenario before in third world countries.
36
Thanks for this thoughtful and comprehensive analysis of Roger Stone and his ilk. His presence is proof democracy is fragile when persons of his ilk pollute the electoral process.
21
@Hugh Gordon McIsaac
“The best people.”
1
Roger Stone is the poster boy for the length of Republican corruption, his arc going back 50 years. He has fed the political hopper with some of the most toxic elements ever, and having breathed them in, we see violence and lies rising. His was a dormant strain of backroom deals that became an epidemic under Trump. Convictions may not be enough to quarantine the dangers he and others unleashed. But he is at the epicenter, the evil zero.
95
" Is being Donald Trump finally about to catch up with Donald Trump?" Actually, being Donald Trump has caught up with him many times already. The question is "Is being President Donald Trump about to catch up with President Donald Trump?" (BTW, thank you for your service over the time frame you just articulated. This personal perspective is incomparable.)
20
Stone is what Americans love to watch on Facebook, Twitter and TV.
An entertainer.
Hence, the rise of Trump in America who was always, primarily, an entertainer.
43
"Man is only defeated when he quits." Nixon did quit, so what's to admire? He was forced quit, but he still quit. If he had stayed around and gone through the impeachment process, fighting every step of the way, then maybe Stone would have something admire him about.
64
It seems as if it is time to remind everyone of the old adage..."If you want to be admired, you need to do something admirable." Stone will never be admired, regardless of his clothing or tattoos. He should have saved his money for lawyers and dog food.
117
@Tom Q And Manafort had the ostrich coat. These people are made from the same cloth (and my apologies to ostriches everywhere).
10
Roger Stone and the word "admired" should never be found in the same sentence.
6
In the Trump crime family, Stone is Fredo, Bannon is Luca Brasi,
Manafort is Clemenza, Donald Jr. is Sonny, Cohen is Tom Hagen, Kushner is Tessio, and Donald is Moe Greene.
The main difference between the two families is that at least the Corleones had Vito for a while, and then Michael held the ship together. The Trumps don't just lack a sharp leader. They don't even have someone who could find his butt with a road map.
The Trump movie is going to be a lot like The Godfather, only the new version will be an absurd comedy, out of Truffaut or Kubrick. Wish we had a director of that quality today.
153
@Mike Roddy
History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce -- Karl Marx.
Also this:
Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life -- Oscar Wilde.
52
@Mike Roddy, you are correct, and this will be an epic movie!
22
@Mike Roddy. It's as if the entire arc of the United States since the debacle in Vietnam is to prove that Karl Marx was right.
15
I am coming to the conclusion that the lies and convoluted stories of Stone, Trump and & and others like Manafort are so complicated and thick that. if you really wanted to understand them, you would need to do a flow chart similar to a management grid. But when you finished, you wouldn't be able to trace the direction or the beginning or the end of the lies and and probable conspiracies.
I am glad that Mueller is the adult in charge.
225
@edmele-People in Trump's orbit with ties to Russia: Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Gen. Flynn, John Bolton, Don McGain (Alfa Bank+oligarchs), Wilbur Ross, Rex Tillerson, Betsy DeVos, Mike Pompeo, Jeff Sessions, DHS Kirstjen Nielsen, Brian Benczkowski (Alfa Bank), FBI Chris Wray (King & Spalding, Russia state-controlled oil cos, Trump trust), Carter Page, Michael Flynn Jr., Roger Stone, George Papadopoulos, Eric Prince, Clovis, Conway, Hicks, Dearborn, Lewandowski, Scavino, Gordon. Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Robert & Rebekah Mercer, Steve Bannon, Devin Nunes, Richard Pinedo, Sam Nunn, George Nader, Elliott Broidy, Simon Kukes, Sam Patten, Felix Sater, Boris Ephsteyn, Sergey Gorkov, Michael R. Caputo, Bossert, Berkowitz, Rence Priebus, McFarland, Peter W. Smith, Joel Zamel, Andrei Nikolaev, Alex van der Zwaan, Julian Assange, Mitch McConnell, Lindsay Graham, Marc Rubio, Scott Walker, John Kasich, Richard C. Shelby, Steve Daines, John Hoeven, Ron Johnson, John Kennedy, Jerry Moran, John Thune, Devin Nunes, Dana Rohrabacher, Kay Granger; NRA David Keene, Paul Erikson, Jack Abramhoff, Sheriff David Clarke, Outdoor Channel CEO Jim Liberatore, NRA president Peter Brownell, Jim Gregory, Arnold Goldschlager, Hilary Goldschlager, Andy Credico, Rupert Murdoch, David Pecker, Jack Dorsey, Justin Kenney, Stephen Caulk.
https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2017/12/15/putins-proxies-helped-funnel-millions-gop-campaigns
76
@edmele
Trump directed the use of campaign $ to pay off multiple women and then abetted lying about it to authorities through Cohen.
Trump and his inner circle had continual contact with the highest levels of Russian gov't to collude with it and WikiLeaks which had burgled the DNC and HRC's private computers and emails to divulge it all to turn the campaign in Trump's favor. This was done as a quid pro quo, in which Wiki's Assange would get a better criminal deal than Clinton would have offered, and to remove US sanctions on Russia and its corrupt oligarchs and otherwise favor Russia in US policy if Trump were elected. They then lied about it obstructing justice, and made other false sworn statements to authorities (and the American voters). There is the question of Trump enriching his company with Russian real estate development as well.
This goes beyond inept, beyond sleazy, to criminal. The Trumps have a long history of self dealing, tax schemes, cheating any number of clients, racial profiling tenants, etc.
What is stunning is that much of this was known and still 50% of us voted for this race baiting con artist.
10
@edmele
Would an adult have orchestrated the theatrical raid on Stone’s home in the dark hours by heavily armed, armored team with CNN conveniently on hand to film?
A circus where the accused was out on bail within hours?
An investigation and PR spectacule rolled into one
1
The Venezuelan collapse is to a large extent the underlying example of why the Democrats lost to Trump in 2016, lost Senate seats even in the recent 2018 election, and why Trump retains a remarkably solid base.
Many people of experience have a not an entirely irrational fear of socialism and excessive concentration of power in government leaders,
which they associate with the Democratic opposition to Trump.
Maureen Dowd fails to mention that many Americans are constantly looking for checks and balances, the golden mean,
between the private sector and the power in government.
That is why the GOP so frequently win elections even with Trump as president.
10
@David
You have over-thought this way too much. You need to read Thomas Frank's "What's the Matter with Kansas" to understand how the GOP continues to win elections. In short, they champion amorphous issues like gun rights and abortion, but use their resulting political power to further entrench and enrich their donor class. They care nothing about these issues.
612
@David, Venezuela's collapse is due more to mismanagement by its autocratic, kleptocratic rulers surrounded by their sycophantic cronies than to any particular -ism. In that, Venezuela under Chavez & Maduro has far more in common with Trump's GOP than it does with any policies espoused by Democrats.
Also, your narrative conveniently and selectively ignores the facts that even as Trump was winning the electoral college, the Democrats won the popular vote by a margin of over 3 million votes in the 2016 elections. And Democrats won the House (I believe by the biggest vote counts ever recorded for a midterm election) by flipping more GOP seats than at any election since the post-Watergate election in the early 1970s. So much for Americans expecting Democrats to turn the US into Venezuela.
As Sen. Schumer told Trump after the midterms, if the GOP is bragging about winning Senate races in North Dakota and Missouri, they're really in trouble.
242
@David
"many Americans are constantly looking for checks and balances, the golden mean, between the private sector and the power in government."
You're right. And we have tipped so far in favor of the private sector that the Dems regularly out-poll the GOP nationally. Which is why the party of dirty tricks fights even dirtier to tilt the playing field with voter suppression and unlimited right-wing money.
The only between Venezuela and US politics is a potentially a military adventure to by an administration desperate to distract from its problems.
92
“Hate is a stronger motivator than love.” This is Stone's misunderstanding that is close enough to truth to get him far, but never fully to anything resembling success or happiness. Even the most terrible things are motivated by love. People will attack outsiders when they view outsiders as a threat to those they love or their ability to provide for those they love. They'll be seduced by populist bigotries in hopes of protecting a way of life or an identity they love. But the tendency toward love can often set them straight, especially when they are themselves shown love by those they mistook for threats. It sounds idealistic but that's what has been bending the arc of history toward justice.
53
@Erik Baard
The opposite of hate in this case is not love, but facts, empathy and reason
4
It seems Mr Stone's fondness for antisocial behavior goes back to high school, at least based on various reports of people who knew him then. I'm very disturbed by the level of criminality of the Trump administration. It is off the charts. But, I must say, maybe if we Americans can finally get it together and become adults and look at our history honestly, starting with the genocide of the native people and the Civil War and the liberation movements of the 1960s and 70s and the backlash to those, maybe just maybe men like Stone and Ailes and Murdoch and Trump won't be as successful. Here's hoping.
218
@kim I would be very interested in learning more about Stone's juvenile antisocial behavior. His glaring cruelty and self-aggrandizement probably stem from something as psychologically banal as "daddy didn't love me." Stone is nothing more than a broken little boy who, not having had the childhood he believes he deserved, has devoted his life to revenge and destruction. "Take that, dad!"
I wonder, by the way, what is the source of Stone's fortune.
6
The best line I've seen so far pretty much summing up the entire Trump thing: "Is being Donald Trump finally about to catch up with Donald Trump?".
81
@willw
The best summation of the Trump thing I read was by Benjamin Wittes:
The character of the Trump Administration is best described as malevolence tempered by incompetence.
12
@willw, there is a silver lining. His crooked ways may well take down the NRA and whatever moral high ground the Xtian Right once had. Like toilet fish in the bowl, swirling to their inevitable end game.
4
"Only the worst people"
TRUMP 2016 - 2019
Welcome to the GOP sewer.
244
Deep breaths, big guy. It's coming.
4
To their defense, sewers since Roman times have served an important, functional purpose for the citizenry. It's the fetid effluent flowing within those useful structures which mirrors the immoral stench of the Fake President and his companions.MAGA, indeed!
5
stone exemplifies everything that is wrong in American politics.
187
@paul
He exemplifies what’s wrong in human nature, and the attraction to politics as s symptom
8
@paul
Someone with Nixon's mug tattooed on their back covers much more that is wrong than just politics. He is yet another disgrace that latched himself to the awful Trump.
8
My question is... how are the Republicans going to get rid of their corrupt party leader Trump without destroying the Republican Party which has so supported, collaborated and enabled Vladimir Putin's favorite American President?
Are they really going to ask the American public to believe that they knew nothing about any of it?
Won't that just make the Republican Party look incredibly incompetent and untrustworthy?
176
@TOBY
Not to be a wiseguy, but your questions presuppose that there is a plan. What if there is no plan, never was, at least in the organized manner you expect? What if the plan is simply, every man for himself, and then each individual decision is made purely on the pressures of the moment, with an eye on survival and opportunism?
I too used to look for rational explanations to such things and wonder whether something will make someone look a certain way and wouldn't they care? But slowly waking up to the realization that most of the people I know do not have a master plan for their lives. Even companies which keep pasting their "Mission Statement" every place are full of people who are acting simply on the immediate pressures of the moment with an eye on survival and personal advancement. If it fails they do damage control, find scapegoats, and find a new place to go and practice their mischief.
72
@Suppan
BUT. We have to remember that "working meeting" the day Obama was inaugurated. 15 people were there, including Republican Reps. Eric Cantor (Va.), Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), Paul Ryan (Wis.), Pete Sessions (Texas), Jeb Hensarling (Texas), Pete Hoekstra (Mich.) and Dan Lungren (Calif.), along with Republican Sens. Jim DeMint (S.C.), Jon Kyl (Ariz.), Tom Coburn (Okla.), John Ensign (Nev.) and Bob Corker (Tenn.). Plus Newt Gingrich and Frank Luntz.
That's "collusion."
90
@TOBY. "Won't that just make the Republican Party look incredibly incompetent and untrustworthy? " Yes, because it is. It doesn't want to govern "by, for and of the people." It just wants to make the world safe for plutocrats and oligarchs.
15
This is well-written but it is a sad tale.
I will wait for the Special Counsel Mueller's report but my interest in the question, memorialized in U.S. history by Howard Baker as he methodically questioned witnesses in the Watergate hearing, (I paraphrase) What did Candidate Trump and Pence know about the activities of the campaign consultants that earned them a lot of money, and when did they know it?
Keep your reader's posted.
I have a parallel interest in whose financial interests in Russia were being served by their investment in the election of Mr. Trump?
114
How cynical does one have to be, to think that all the indictments, and the guilty pleas, and all the sleaze in general surrounding Trump, is just a lot of to-do about nothing? Just pure Washington backstabbing? Business as usual?
This is the new transition that I see among his followers. Maybe Trump is corrupt, goes the new line, but they all are corrupt.
We are entering the "objectively pathetic" phase of being a Trump defender.
Unless one is one of those defenders. Then one says one is just "being realistic" about "how things work." This is cynicism verging on nihilism, and I most note, the legendary "values voters" are standing tall in their support for this man of contempt.
What was it the great poem said? The best lack all conviction, the worst are full of passionate intensity?
I think we are moving beyond even that dismal reading of our age.
97
@pjc
Maybe they're in the "bargaining" phase Kübler-Ross describes?
28
@pjc
"The Second Coming" by Yeats.
4
To people like Stone, getting indicted is like becoming a "made man" in the mob. This is a badge of honor to him and his ilk.
60
Is it possible that the failure of many to speak out against Mr. Trump might be due to dossiers of embarrassing information on them that he has in his tool kit? Is it possible that he has no such thing concerning Bob Mueller whom everyone seems to regard as a person of honor?
41
@lewwardbaker
Lindsey Graham golfed ONCE with Trump.
After, he did a 180-degree flip.
#Kompromat
60
Dear Loyal Opposition - you are gloating far too soon. Trump and his Remora should have been in jail at least three decades ago. This time, the slowly grinding millstones of justice may have caught up with them.
But it's no sure bet as slime is very slippery...
151
Reading from the NYT's 5/11/2017 review of "Get Me Roger Stone" I can't help but think that Mr. Mueller's information on Stone makes him substantial jail bait for many jurisdictions as he seems to have left a slimy trail everywhere he went including the many Trump properties.
It matters little if it was Cohen or Manifort who "ratted" Stone out. The important matter is that the two of them are singing an aria which could lead to the very top.
So the prosecutors in many jurisdictions can get in line and take a number as to who gets the leftovers after Mr. Muller throws his carcass away.
59
He has an excuse, Hillary made him do it, or maybe it was Obama, I could not have been that straight shooter Donald the swindler could it? No of course not, besides he really likes dogs, well um, maybe not.
Stone is just another one of the gang that can't talk straight, but it is all a mistake you see.
For some reason I just though of this:
Well, they’ll stone you when you walk all alone
They’ll stone you when you are walking home
They’ll stone you and then say you are brave
They’ll stone you when you are set down in your grave
But I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get stoned
40
@David Underwood - As written and performed by Bob Dylan
21
Roger Stone was arrested on 7 counts of lying to Congress and witness tampering, but I am sure this is just the tip of the ice berg, crimes hidden beneath his braggadocio. I am sure Mueller is using these accusations to get to the deeper levels of Stone's and Trump's criminality. The plot seems so complex that even Graham Green would have an almost impossible time sorting it out and that is perhaps one of the factors that this crime syndicate depends upon. After all Al Capone was never convicted for the commission of murder, but tax evasion for which he received a maximum sentence. Lot's of smoke here, but that can kill you just as quickly as any flames.
By the way, thank you NYT for the table on this page spelling out how and when the Trump mobsters contacted their Russian counterparts, a huge job and breath taking in its detail. Until Mueller finally presents his report appears it is probably the best summary will get.
327
@just Robert
Prosecutors who want to pressure suspects into divulging incriminating information charge them with the most serious crimes possible. They wouldn't charged such suspects with lying under oath because that destroy their credibility when they are called to testify agent higher ups.
7
@William Case
Stone was charged with seven counts involving three serious crimes, each of which strikes at the very heart of the rule of law. As Stone was being arrested, both his Florida and NY properties were searched pursuant to warrants. As such, it is reasonable to conclude that Mueller was looking to gather further evidence of crimes separate from those Stone has already been charged with. If required, pressuring will come later.
42
@Rw: The reason Mueller went into Stone's properties was to recover phones and computers. Stone was a big user of What's App. Mueller wants to get into Stone's communication devices. Which means, we have a ways to go yet and there will probably be more charges unless he cooperates.
25
If Stone and The Donald have used "revving up angry white working-class voters" as a tactic to win elections, one wonders whether they are themselves authentic racists or whether they believe in nothing but power for its own sake. Are they "merely" impersonating bigots or are they true believers? Either way they represent a pestilence that needs to be driven out of the body politic, and yet if they're being disingenuous with respect to their own feelings about white supremacy (a disease that normally infects only the feeble-minded) one wonders how they manage to live with themselves. Can one ever attain enough wealth and power to compensate for the loss of one's soul? Perhaps it's a moot point but I somehow can't get past it.
466
@stu freeman
I don't think there was a soul there to begin with for stone, rump and those like them; so they tried to fill themselves with money and the power they think it will bring them.
21
@stu freeman
There is a strain of virulent and defiantly proud racism in America that goes back to its founding, based upon bad science and misinterpreted religion. Its recent iteration has been softer in the guise of subtle race baiting seen with Nixon, and then Reagan, W to a degree, and now, Trump. These men and those who vote for them indeed believe what is said about race. I don't necessarily believe any of the four men are personal racists but they are of a class that traffics in race. It's a very deep American tradition.
14
@stu freeman
Conservatives claim Trump cannot be a racist because the black and Latino unemployment rates are at all time lows.
And that's not sarcasm on my part, either.
14
You can judge a person’s character, or lack there of, pretty accurately by the people he or she associates with. I rest my case.
318
@jwgibbs
...as in "birds of a feather flock together".
4
As the undertaker said in the opening sequence of the Godfather "To get justice I must go and see Don Corleone". Donald Trump who behaves like a Godfather decided that to have any chance to win the election 'he must go see Roger Stone'. Stone was one of the few members of the Nixon Watergate dirty tricks unit to escape the long arm of the law, but he has more than met his match in Robert Mueller and may ultimately help bring down Donald Trump. History really does tend to repeat itself.
166
Sounds like Stone is the ultimate stonewall.
Might be the only wall Trump's gonna get. We'll see.
59
He prides himself on his clothes, but his idea of tailoring is wrong. His suits don't fit him correctly. They're unflattering and make him look slightly off. Like Trump he is full of ideas formed in youth, never modified. " ... From sea to shiny sea. "
96
@Fraught His toupee is not looking good, either.
78
@Fraught
Custom made suits *always* fit correctly. Don't overplay your hand.
@Fraught
Usually, I don't think a person's appearance is worth discussion, but, yes, his clothes do look odd. In the same way trump is a poor man's idea of what a rich man is, Stone is an poorly dressed man idea of a well dressed man
7
I remember when Republicans were conservatives, people like Dwight David Eisenhower. The current crop of self-described conservatives are anything but.
Roger Stone is the apotheosis of the metamorphosis from Human Being to Dung Beetle.
Part of me hates to gloat, but I so look forward to him "twisting slowly, slowly in the wind", or serving slowly and longly in federal prison. But Trump will pardon him on his way out the door.
Dan Kravitz
108
@Dan Kravitz
Don't forget that Eisenhower chose Nixon...
4
Stone a man on mission....he needs a pardon. So far so good as Trump and Rudy are in restraint mode rather than unleashing on Stone.
15
There's one piece of history about Roger Stone that never gets enough press, Ms. Dowd.
That is, Roger Stone was involved in the "recount" in Florida and swinging it to George W. Bush. Specifically, he was behind a political group attacking three Democratic state Supreme Court justices threatening Bush's possible victory:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2003/07/11/fla-may-fine-gop-figure-for-2000-recount-actions/af72ec6a-082e-4292-913c-f8ed14c2fc62/?utm_term=.9e4d3fc6c5f3
These sleazy political operatives, from Lee Atwater to Karl Rove to Paul Manafort to Roger Stone on the Right have been getting away with this disgusting behavior for decades.
Trump is a direct result of this cancer.
Lock them all up.
2724
@RjW
Or another expression suited to the circumstances: "taken out to the wall and.....". That works for me.
30
@V
I agree, most of Trump's "best people" deserve jail time. But Maureen Dowd is hoping that none of us remember how she was cheering on Trump and cheer leading the HRC-bashing way back in late 2016; relentlessly stirring the Benghazi and emails pots. So, in some respects, you are responsible for this so-called president Maureen; an apology would be nice.
342
@V
The 21st Century has been awash in Republican “ganstas” wearing tailored suits.
The 2000 election film footage of the Texas thugs – dispatched to West Palm for Jeb Bush to create havoc in the municipal halls where people attempted to count the votes - prompted a group of us to travel from the Gulf Coast to protest.
Carrying signs showing the indecipherable Florida ballot and shouting “Count the votes!” we were surrounded by the stone-faced agents of the Bush family. These bruisers stared down at us and snarled, “Go home!” I shouted back, “I am home!”
But with the Supreme Court effectively ruling the presidency belonged to Maureen Dowd’s “Dauphin” George W. Bush, I was shaken enough to wonder if America was my home anymore.
After surviving those terrible Bush/Cheney years, we watched Republicans thwart Barack H. Obama at every turn. Now Trump and cronies dismantle the government right before our eyes while Fox News and poorly educated supporters cheer. It's a crime.
250
Stone-cold traitor is more like it
372
Why were all these people (Stone, Trump, etc.) not in jail 20-30 years ago? This is the issue America must now face. Law enforcement must be more proactive.
731
@Zachary Burton
It is my belief that prosecutors were afraid of Donald Trump, just as all the other Republican candidates in 2016 were afraid of him, just as the Republicans on Capitol Hill are afraid of him now (though less so after this week).
When in business, Trump sued everyone in sight and he, in turn, was sued hundreds of times. By one count, Trump has been a party in one way or another to 5,000 law suits. Most people in business would find the idea of 50 legal cases hard to bear but Trump, being his own boss except for the Atlantic City casino mess, couldn't be fired and couldn't be stopped.
Imagine a junior prosecutor five to ten years out of law school. "Hey, boss, look at what this guy is doing. There could be 20 to 30 charges against him."
"Well, are you prepared to go up against what 50 million in lawyers can buy? They'll slow things down so much your kids will be in law school by the time a case goes to trial."
"Yeah, I guess I better go back to prosecuting purse snatchers and food store robbers."
The only explanation for Stone never being indicted is that law enforcement has only so many resources and the public wants it to focus on high profile crimes like bank robbery and drug sales. I am just guessing, but Stone has probably broken enough campaign laws and other statutes to merit many years in the slammer. Never got caught, till now.
461
@Zachary Burton
You ask "why were all these people not in jail"....in case you've not noticed, executives who do egregious things seldom go to jail here in the U.S. Notice the absence of Big Pharma or Wall Street executives in prisons of any sort, for one prime example.
255
@Doug Terry
Or maybe New York law enforcement, media and culture were in cahoots with Trump.
11
Nothing could be more emblematic of Stone's isolation from current realities than flashing Nixon's victory sign. Just as Nixon went down in history as a disgrace to the office of the president, so now will Stone go down as an accomplice to enemies of the republic. Stone's obvious satisfaction with being a "player," even a vile and corrupt player, is only one of countless manifold ironies playing out during the era of Trump, who has managed to convince a third of the American people that his place at the center of a nest of cheaply bought crooks and liars is mere coincidence.
265
@Eric Caine
I'm sure Stone was thinking the exact same thing as you when he flashed the Nixon sign. After, his mantra is:
Better to be infamous than not famous at all.
26
Like Trump, Roger Stone is a man with no redeeming qualities and no morals at all. Cohen and Manafort as well.
They admire and emulate the tough guys of organized crime without actually BEING those tough guys. But the Russians working for former KGB agent Putin are those tough guys, and that's who the phonies chose to do business with.
Stone is blustering but he's counting on a Trump pardon, not realizing 3 things:
1) Trump WILL throw him under the bus. A pardon is unlikely.
2) A Trump pardon means he cannot use the 5th Amendment to keep from testifying--meaning he must tell the truth or face contempt or perjury charges.
3) He will still be liable to state charges, and the new NY AG would love get him in her cross-hairs.
Stone is finished and doesn't even know it!
805
@Dadof2 I hope Stone IS liable to state charges that will not be waived by a pardon but I haven't heard that he has any problems in NY or FL.
37
@Dadof2-I hope Stone's bluster isn't due to having wiped out all of his electronic records--knowing he would be subject to multiple investigations and an arrest. Unfortunately, he's had months of forewarning.
29
@mother of two Having Nixon tatooed on his back should be a crime....
15
Several commentators, including Ms. Dowd, have commented on the recent whiteness of Manafort's hair. These commentators seem to suggest that Manafort has somehow learned what it means to suffer. An actual human emotion! However, it seems more likely to me that Mr. Manafort's access to high end hair care products in prison has been cut off (and also likely to lead to ridicule by other inmates), and has little to do with his development as an actual human being.
1479
@Susan
Yes, I had the same reaction. His hair color before prison was always a reddish brown, a preferred color for appearing before cameras. Guess they can't/won't match the color where he is now.
101
@Susan
those hair dyes have a lead base plus a carbon component.
Maybe the lack of the stuff will encourage reflection and a need for absolution.
But I wouldn't count on it.
44
@Susan-Manfort also acquired a wheelchair...for the cameras. A lot of us, including his fellow prison inmates, would like to know what did he do with the tens of millions that he scored? In what universe, can Manafort claim to be broke?
77
"Human nature has never changed."
Roger Stone is reprehensible. But he understands how to tap into the darker angels of human nature for political purposes, and that dubious talent has served him well over the past few decades as a well-paid "adviser." But his "time in the barrel" is at hand. You had a good run, Roger. But you got into Robert Mueller's crosshairs, and now you're nothing but an inmate looking for a cell.
200
One hopes that Roger Stone will soon discover that "orange" is the new "bespoke and natty." One also hopes that in that regard, be becomes a sartorial trend-setter for many of his associates.
168
@Tom Sullivan
"Stone looked strangely unadorned as he came out of court to meet the press in a navy polo shirt and bluejeans."
It was very decent of the FBI to let him keep his hair, at least.
84
Grand Old Psychopath Roger Stone may be right when he says “hate is a stronger motivator than love”, but that doesn't mean American voters have to follow the most destructive political party in American history over the cliff since the Confederates tried to Make White Supremacy Great Again.
Stone, Trump, Manafort, Lee Atwater and the politics of total destruction comprise the heart of modern Republicanism; its soul is unfettered sociopathic greed.
Stone's full political modus operandi is this:
"Attack, attack, attack—never defend" and "admit nothing, deny everything, launch counterattack."
That helps Republicans in winning campaigns, but their real advantage comes via voter suppression, voter file purges, black-box vote counting, gerrymandering and outright theft of elections.
Roger is the North Star of Republican electoral darkness and I can't wait to see him in a standard-issue prison jumpsuit, but he's just a part of a much larger political criminal syndicate that cannot stand democracy, representative government or the will of the American people.
Regardless of the final Mueller report on the 2016 victory by the Grand Old Putinistas, it's clear that Russian-style Kremlin-sponsored oligarchy is what the Republican Party prefers in America...0.1% speech-0.1% policy-0.1% government and 99.9% white spite and peasantry.
Those Americans who vote Republican should skip American elections and simply move to Russia to experience the Russian-Republican dream in all its glory.
1398
@Socrates: I think it's hilarious that Russia infiltrated the NRA to infiltrate Republicans - as if Putin would allow anything close to the Second Amendment in his country. Didn't the Republicans ever question that premise? Can they not think or do they actively choose not to think?
95
@Socrates
"move to Russia to experience the Russian-Republican dream in all its glory."
Are you kiddin me?
They will love it. Russia is 110% white.
The problem is: in Russia they don't have trailer parks.
They have projects.
They will come back because-in their minds- projects is for "color" people.
35
I like this comment except for the trailer park mention. I have to remind myself of how many middle and upper middle class supporters Trump has. I still get startled when I learn that people like some fellow art museum volunteers are Trumpites.
While canvassing for my Democratic Senator, I liked canvassing in trailer parks. There were Trumpites there, true, but there were also Democrats. A lot of people live in trailer parks due to finances. I don’t mean to sound self righteous. While canvassing, I just was impressed by how trailer parks have people without a lot of money sense of home ownership.
49
Imagine assembling a clown show of Trump, Junior, Jared, Manafort, Bannon, Stone, Flynn, KA Conway and some sideshow characters like Carter Page and Papadopoulus. Deliver some memorable campaign promises for America's future like "Lock her up" and "Build the Wall", while encouraging mobs to beat up reporters. Toss in a few surprise tapes about assaulting young women.
Then openly conspire with Russian intelligence to interfere in the US election while being watched by the FBI, CIA and 6 European country intelligence services.
And make plain as day efforts to relieve sanctions on Russia, support the pro-Russian cause in Ukraine, make over 100 contacts with Russian government officials during the campaign and transition and attempt to set up a secret communication channel through the Russian Embassy that US intelligence cannot monitor.
Even after all of this, the chaos and the soaring deficits of the first two years of the Trump Administration, around 40% of Americans still think he is doing a great job.
Based on personal experience working in all 50 states, I don't believe that part of the population is going to change much. But we need to take back the government on behalf of future generations and do it soon.
2202
@Look Ahead About 40% of Americans don't believe in evolution. Maybe it's the same people who believe in Trump.
98
@Look Ahead-I blame a great deal of it on Fox and the explosion of unregulated right wing media on the Internet.
86
@Look Ahead And if Ivanka Trump now has a patent on Chinese voting machines that would eventually be used in USA, she could be helping her dad keep the presidency for another 4 years.
41
I have a bottle of champagne chilling and will open it the day Stone is sentenced to serve time in prison. I have another for the defeat of trump in the 2020 election; and a third for the day trump is sentenced to serve time in prison.
1346
I'll have what Allen's having.
272
@Allen82
The day Trump goes down should be named a federal holiday.
Just give it a name that doesn't include his.
88
Amen, but why wait ? The very best part of my day is writing comments to the NYT, lounging about on the couch, the TV on for background, and sipping wine. My sole vice, and soul soother. Seriously.
47
No Stone left unturned, no creatures hiding under rocks. Spring IS coming, the flowers will bloom, the stench will dissipate, the gloom will dissolve.
Thank you, Mr. Mueller.
496
@Phyliss Dalmatian
Springtime post Trump? Stone is proof that the lingering stench of Nixon will never go away.
37
Forgot to add the most important, relevant line, for people my age :
" Here Comes the Sun ".
22
Yep! Muller has found The Rosetta Stone of Trump’s ill gotten presidency, collusion with all offenses trimmings.
8
Ah, Rodger Stone, professional huckster dabbling in treason and conspiracy falls back on his perverse self assurance that he is also teflon like the Don. His coy grin reveals him for his detachment from reality. He put out his appeal via subtext for a pardon which will never come. The Donald, every self interested, will leave him roasting on the spit rather than tarnishing himself in a losing court battle over an obstruction of justice case.
We can only hope the spotlight dredges up his lifetime of political dirty tricks and unrelenting personal indecency which is the constant narrative of his life.
121
Roger Stone's bravado after his arrest yesterday shouldn't surprise anyone. He's plainly angling for a pardon, backed up by months of open defiance and mocking of the Mueller investigation. His public distaste for flippers and stoolies could be his get-out-of-jail-free card, certain that the president is closely monitoring this development.
Stone may not go away quietly but he should keep in mind how casually the president's campaign aides (Lewandowski, Manafort, Gates, Papadopoulos) and "friends" have been dismissed as of having little or no importance in the 2016 campaign. The president doesn't have anyone's else's back but his own.
208
Next up from Trump: 'I don't really know Stone, he barely was with my campaign, but many people tell me that he's a good man. And everyone knows there was no collusion!"
390
@NM ~
This is what trump tweeted about Stone's arrest:
“Greatest Witch Hunt in the History of our Country! NO COLLUSION”
62
@NM Already done.
3
After reading this, all I can wonder is, "when is the presidential pardon?"
22
Maybe the presidential pardon is when Trump believes enough time has passed for Stone to prove his loyalty? As Comey noted about the mob boss mentality...
24
Stone's public defiance made me think that he is eagerly awaiting pardoning by Trump. A show. He's more afraid of getting the 'Michael Cohen' treatment than of the law!
43
@Red Sox, '04, '07, '13, ‘18, I think Stone has to be convicted of something to be pardoned. Maybe Stone's conviction will be delayed until trump is out of office. These things take time. Hope springs eternal.
6
Stone-Cold. Jason's moniker on General Hospital. Yes. The soap opera. What we're living in today's cheesy melodrama of Trump and his creepy corrupt cronies.
54
Ms Dowd,
You say that Stone and Trump inflamed the birther controversy, but you did call it what it was: racism through and through. Is your scorn for Barack Obama so strong that it makes it impossible for you to say that Stone and Trump are racists? Say it, Ms Dowd, and it will set you free from your scorn.
194
@Big Frank you are so right. It was never a controversy. It is a big ugly lie.
10
Oh, now it's Roger Stone--where are the jokes about leaving no Stone unturned? The Democrats can't stop re-fighting the 2016 election; what is the real reason for doing so? To keep the spotlight off the fact that their real program for the nation's future comes down to income-transfer: Responsibility-shifting give-away-the-store free-lunchism for the lazy and minorities + open borders and climate hysteria, at the expense of hard-working productive people. Come on Dems, how about a little Rah! Rah! for self-responsibility, work, saving, building, even if you don't believe it. I know, I know, things like that take effort.
5
@Ronald B. Duke
Trump just used up $ 6 billion to his shutdown stunt and still wants to get his hands on $ 5 billion for his wall. That's going to come out of middle-class taxes. What were you saying about income transfer?
93
@Ronald B. Duke, I'm not sure what refighting the 2016 election means.I dont know of any democrats that think we can have a revote. Roger Stone is an issue of law and order.You break the law...you get punished.
17
@Ronald B. Duke:
Easy there, Ronnie you're tribalism is showing. You're just angry because you bought into the divisive, racially intolerant double-speak that made you vote for that demagogue, McDonald Trump.
How much money did you get to keep for yourself after Trump's huge new tax bill was enacted? A tidy sum or just a few more dollars each paycheck? I happen to think a billionaire should pay more in taxes than a person (your hard-working, productive kind) making $50K per year. If they (the 1%) paid their fair share every year then more money would be available for health care, education, infrastructure and yes, border security. But you need to point fingers and just blame others when it is our politicians (yours and mine) allowing this mess we find ourselves in to continue. Keep up the work you are doing to split our country than in trying to find solutions that actually work.
20
The 2008 New Yorker article to which you refer also mentioned that Stone admitted placing an ad in a Florida swinger's magazine, seeking amorous liasons with women or very fit men.
"I'm a libertarian AND a libertine," Stone told the writer.
No wonder he enjoys Trump's company.
124
What goes around comes around, and those that were out of vogue are fashionable again. Social media and smart phones took care of that, giving a new platform to one who practiced said ''dark-arts'' .
What those arts (boiled down to their bare essence) amount to is bending truth and bending the will of others to do their bidding. It is to make one believe that they are for something, when in actuality, they are diametrically opposed.
However, with all those that come into fashion, they drop out and off that much quicker. (especially after they have been dragged out from their homes under the bright lights)
The puppies trail behind forever loyal but a victim in it all too,
10
What goes around comes around, and those that were out of vogue are fashionable again. Social media and smart phones took care of that, giving a new platform to one who practice in obfuscation.
What those arts (boiled down to their bare essence) amount to is bending truth and bending the will of others to do their bidding. It is to make one believe that they are for something, when in actuality, they are diametrically opposed.
However, with all those that come into fashion, they drop out and off that much quicker. (especially after they have been dragged out from their homes under the bright lights)
The puppies trail behind forever loyal but a victim in it all too,
13
Roger Stone is a truly mean-spirited figure. No wonder he, like Trump, his soul mate if you will, were proteges of Roy Cohn.
One thing is certain, nobody is going to feel sorry for Stone, Manafort or any of Donald Trump's merry band of mean, vindictive misfits.
Once our national nightmare is over, it will take a long time to heal, if we ever can.
Because Stone and Trump poked the racist beast of a certain segment of the nation, unleashing virulent emotions, conservative-fed conspiracy theories, and disdain for truth, fact checking, and critical thinking.
The president, a man who doesn't read, aligned himself with a man who did but used his reading to polish his dark arts, and tries to make ignorance seem cool.
As a result, they got an entire political party to totally overhaul its thinking on foreign policy goals, belief in climate science (indeed, belief in any science) and even, I venture to say, the biggie: immigration.
Trump, egged on by Stone, has done more damage to our politics, rule of law, and views of government than any foreign invader could have.
Stone, more than Trump, grasped an essential truth: the worst damage a country can undergo is from within.
653
It pains me to think I have anything in common with Roger Stone.
We have three Yorkshire Terriers (all rescues).
But threatening to kidnap another's pet? That's strictly lowlife Stone's métier.
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@lechrist
I feel the same ,too. We have a Yorkie mix ,a brave blind little rescue guy.
I figure Stone has one up on Trump in that Trump has ZERO redeeming qualities,whereas Stone is said to like animals,so he has ONE redeeming thing about him.
However, I find him basically revolting.
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How many dominos leading up to Donald Trump can fall before he does too?
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@NM -- esteemed daughter...
I think the last domino to fall will be the president's son. Junior's fingerprints are all over that infamous June 2016 meeting with the Russians and if there's a hidden phone call, text or email that involves him, he'll have some explaining to do.
There's the issue of a phone call involving Junior that Adam Schiff wanted to investigate but was thwarted by Devin Nunes...stay tuned.
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Trump lies that if we 'build a wall, crime will fall.' Foolishness.
What's true: Mueller shows us every day, for their crimes, Trump's team will pay.
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Thank you for another well written piece.
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Sadly, we, The People, are the biggest losers in all this.
If you've not yet watched "Get Me Roger Stone" on Netflix, it is well worth getting the service to watch it. These finds of Richard Nixon's are what did this nation in. Manafort and Stone completely corrupted this country, well beyond anything Nixon or Roy Cohn could ever have imagined. They went on to live the high life. Now, in the twilight of their years, the mess they made is finally catching up. But at what cost and to whom?
These people not only went and found the most corruptible people to turn into lobbyists and politicians, invented the most twisted fake ideologies to justify their misdeeds, cooked up the most vile corruption schemes and put them into action, but they sold this nation to the highest foreign bidders - all for their personal gain.
Robert Mueller is now in possession of Stone's electronic doodads, including hard drives and phones, which the FBI experts will recover. The data from his chats with Assange and who knows who else will soon be known to the investigators and the rest of Trump's accomplices will be caught in Mueller's net.
There is no punishment that will satisfy or compensate this nation for the damage they've done. That said, patience is a virtue this nation needs as The Mueller does his painstaking work. When done, Mueller, a great patriot, should be awarded a medal by the next Democratic president.
---
Things Trump Did While You Weren’t Looking [2019]
https://wp.me/p2KJ3H-3h2
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@Rima Regas Although back then Bob Mueller and I were at opposite ends of the virtue scale and always will be, I'm grateful I can claim him as a fellow classmate at Princeton. More than any other alumnus/alumna I can think of, he embodies the motto Woodrow Wilson coined for our alma mater: Princeton In the Nation's Service.
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@Tom Benghauser
I agree. Whatever disagreements one may have with Mueller, there is little to disagree on when it comes to his honesty and patriotism.
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@Rima Regas - You nailed it.
The dots are now connected from Russia to Wikileaks to Stone. But there is a gap between Stone and the Trump campaign.
What the prosecutors need (since Stone will never talk, and, if he did, would never be believed) is an electronic record showing that there was a link between himself and the campaign.
Assuming that Stone didn't wipe his electronic devices, they should be able to find this, if it exists, within two or three months (yes, forensic analysis takes a long, long time). And then it will be interesting to read the next indictment!
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