For those handful of Americans who held to the thought that Donald J. Trump at some point would become kinder and gentler, yesterday should have convinced you otherwise.

Trump told a reporter the other night that among his “regrets” is that he hasn’t been “softer” in his approach to his public image.

Two days later day he held an hour-and-a-half press conference in which he:

• threatened House Democrats with investigating them if they investigated him;
• ordered a female reporter who is black to “sit down” when she rose to ask a question but he had hadn’t called on her;
• told another female reporter who is black that her question to him was racially motivated, which it was not;
• fired his Attorney General as the Department of Justice’s special counsel reportedly is getting ready to announce more indictments (possibly of Trump’s son);
• installed a loyalist as AG temporarily who is on record saying that special counsel has overstepped his bounds;
• not only mistreated another male reporter who is white as he asked difficult questions but later had that reporter’s White House pass pulled temporarily – something that to my recollection has never occurred before;
• And, finally, had the White House put out a doctored video of the incident purportedly showing that reporter “laying hands on” the intern who tried to take away the microphone despite dozens of witnesses who said he never touched her. And, after watching the video many times myself, he did not touch her but did "accost" her by saying “excuse me, ma’am.” Still the White House doctored a video that shows he touched her despite video evidence to the contrary.

In fact, while some may have quarrels with that reporter’s, CNN’s Jim Acosta, hardline approach to this administration, in my watching him in briefings, while his questions are often not just difficult but quite accusatory, he has never been anything but polite with the press secretary or the president. And, he was equally polite to that intern grasping at the microphone and the White House guard who took away his pass (Acosta recorded that experience. I watched it too.). He even thanked the guard for his service.

Ladies and gentlemen, if you didn’t know it before, you saw it yesterday in public view. This President is not a democratic president, he is an authoritarian and  is dangerous to this country’s values and laws. Freedom of the press is not an assumed right, it is written in the First Amendment. Attorney General Jeff Sessions didn’t resign as AG, he was fired, as Sessions made clear in his letter which began “At your (Trump’s) request,” he was submitting his resignation. Of course Trump didn't directly fire Sessions. He had his chief of staff do it.

Trump believes the AG is his attorney. The AG is the peoples' attorney, not the President's. He put in a Trump loyalist temporarily to fill that job (and take over the special counsel’s investigation) but he will nominate an equally malleable man or woman to take Sessions’ place permanently. That will open doors likely to many more odd applications of the AG's role and the Constitution's protections. He will, of course, expect the two men he appointed to the Court to back him up if and when matters come to them.

Trump keeps referring to the special counsel's probe as being “into whether there was collusion” and into him – it is not. It is an investigation into Russia’s mucking in our election in 2016. As some proof, multiple indictments have been filed against Russian individuals and countries not for contacts with Trump or his people, but into their hacking into our election. The special counsel's mandate is to, also, follow any other leads that may come up that could be illegal. The counsel can follow on his own or can parcel them out to U.S. attorneys, as he has.

All this after Trump said in his post-election press conference that Tuesday was a big win for him (not the party, him) when it was far from a big win for either. The Democrats took over the House, which is a major change for his second two years in the White House, increased governorships and won a couple hundred state legislative seats. Now, he will not only be challenged in how he conducts the nation’s business but he will be investigated by Democrats with subpoena power.

He can continue to bully with reporters, foes, friends and other countries but he won’t be as free to get away with it. His diehard supporters likely will think that is just the establishment in Washington picking on him more. But they will be holding this President accountable, as any president should be.
 

 Let me be clear: Donald Trump did not send bombs to anyone. And, neither did the Democratic Party.

Seems the debate is over which party is trying to or at least threatening to kill two former presidents, a former secretary of state, two former CIA directors, a congressman, a senator, a former vice president, a cable news network and an actor has become a whodunit  focused on political parties.

I don’t believe that for a nanosecond, nor do sensible Americans.

I do believe, though, that there is a dangerous situation in our country with debate and the chasm between the two ideological sides will not be resolved by meeting in the middle. And I do believe the kind of rhetoric each sides employs makes it worse.

President Trump has led his followers from the middle, not the ideological middle but the rhetorical middle and he has let them to a louder, more ugly place. 

The country’s standoff is not about right and left. It’s about right and wrong. And the wrongs are on both ends of that spectrum, but I do believe Trump has taken it to an extreme.

Body slamming a reporter. Promising to bail out folks who literally fight on his behalf. Defending despots. Ignoring the obvious when it comes to North Korea’s Kim, Saudi Arabia’s bin Salam, Russia’s Putin. That is not right wing versus left wing.

That is about a way of ruling that seems to appeal to President Trump – the power of a despot to dictate to his people. The type of leader who holds military parades honoring himself.

That is not conservative politics.

Trump couldn’t even get through his teleprompted speech without going off script and announcing how fake he was being. “I’m behaving,” he told his rally goers. He couldn’t keep a straight face even for as long as a speech lasts.

And, if you had any doubt as to his true feelings, he began tweeting the next day and pointing fingers at the media as a principal in the bomb spreading. Making it about politics and anything and anyone but him.

Let’s be clear, there’s a lot of blame to go around:
 

• Democrats, or at least people supporting Democrats, have committed acts of violence – the shooting of Republican congressmen a year ago for example.
• Republican rhetoric, led by Trump, has become mean, vicious and violent. 
• The cable news media has become a “here’s a bit of  news, now let’s go to our panel of (paid) talking heads for a discussion” which isn’t really a discussion but hours of argument between right and left – or right and wrong.
• The Internet contributes by hosting both right and left wing web sites and many of us visit only one or the other, never getting a clear view of what’s going on but one through a single ideological prism.

The bombings are the fault of us all.

What the President misses though is that he is the leader of the country. He sets the tone. He can raise the volume and he can decrease the volume. Put aside the attempted bombings, the law will get, I am sure, whoever perpetuated that terrorism.

What we all can do is tone it down. Get our ideological or political arguments back to substance not ad hominem attacks. Get back to our American experiment which is in danger of failing right now.

Get back to rule of law. To respectful debate. We have some difficult issues facing us and debate about the substance is what will resolve those issues, not pointing fingers and assessing blame.

I have friends in my Facebook account who would describe themselves as conservatives and other friends who describe themselves a progressives. The memes each publish can often be juvenile, sophomoric and hateful, not clever.

We need to stop “liking” and re-sending or Tweeting such hateful nonsense.

Some “conservatives” believe the Democratic National Committee paid someone to send those bombs and are paying the migrants on their march to a freer life as a way to stoke emotions prior to the mid-term elections. And, there are others who claim the Republicans are paying them to energize those who want to close our borders and keep out people who are this generation’s version of our ancestors – seeking a better, more secure life for their families.

If anyone is still  looking to Trump for calm, thoughtful, adult leadership, give it up. He cannot provide it and even if he tried, no one would believe him. He'd just skip off that kind of message in his next sentence, as he did the other night.

We need to remember that we all came from our parents’ and grandparents’ generations of pilgrims searching for a better life. They created a society where everyone is equal. Where everyone has freedom of speech to say what they want (within some limits like, no shouting fire in a crowded theater when there is no fire). Where we have a free press, there to keep our elected officials honest.

That's why so many millions have emigrated here and created an even better society.

We keep up the way we’re going, we won’t be that destination much longer.
 
(Just before I posted, the President tweeted this:

“ Republicans are doing so well in early voting, and at the polls, and now this “Bomb” stuff happens and the momentum greatly slows - news not talking politics. Very unfortunate, what is going on? Republicans, go out and vote!”

It’s up to us to have the discussion…he clearly can only see politics.)

I oppose Brett Kavanaugh for confirmation to the Supreme Court.

My thinking covers a few things:

1. I believe Dr. Ford, even though there this is no corroborating evidence (but without that evidence, it’s not enough to oppose him)
2. I don’t think teen drinking to excess is a sin or a reason not to vote for someone
3. I do believe he lied to Congress and I think that, alone, would be reason enough to not seat him in the most important court in our system
   
4. I believe he is a true partisan and while many of our justices and former justices also were partisans, Kavanaugh has taken that partisanship to excess

His op-ed in the Wall Street Journal this morning tops his partisanship and lying with a cherry on top. In it, he apologizes for his behavior at his last hearing, where he berated the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee for opposing him simply for partisan reasons. He even played the Clinton card and the "you just hate Trump'(my words, not his) card. He may be right that partisanship on the Democrat side was a prime motivator for their no votes. But they are Senators and are partisans by definition That partisanship doesn’t make them wrong to oppose him though.

Before serving on his current court, Kavanaugh held politically appointed jobs, most recently in the Bush II White House. Not a reason in itself to oppose him. But he acted like a partisan then (when it was acceptable) and has carried that behavior over to now, when it is not acceptable.

Asked a question by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat, about whether he ever blacked out after a night of drinking, his retort was, “have you?” Not the right answer in that setting, Judge. His performance during that hearing, crying, yelling, and likely lying is a disqualifier. President Trump, I’m sure, loved his performance because Trump also has believed in his adult life that when you are attacked, attack back harder. And that’s what Kavanaugh did in his hearing.  That performance came from a partisan background and a desire to please the President who nominated him. Don't get me wrong, it may also have felt good but it was the wrong time and the wrong place. The op-ed tries to correct that behavior -- a tactic we see in political campaigns but not during the Supreme Court nomination process.

His hearing personal may not be his typical approach to cases, or life, but he knew enough to pull out that quiver to please a President. And it looks like it worked.

He may be a wholly different man now than he was a teen. Most of us are. I drank in high school and college, most of us did in my generation and many did more than drink.

We’re past, I think, when that is a disqualifier for public office. But lying about it when sitting for confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court is not okay. Does that mean that lawyers that come before him can lie and it’s okay? Does that mean briefs based on falsehoods in Supreme Court cases are okay? Does that mean he can cite a lawyer for a lie and be credible?

So, while my guess is there is truth to his alleged attack on Dr. Ford, she can’t prove it. And he says it didn't happen. Her story is a factor in my opposition but not a determiner.

Lying to Congress is a disqualifier. Yelling and screaming at Senators in your confirmation hearing is a disqualifier. We’ve seen more of his college-mates come out and say he’s lying than say he didn’t. So there is corroboration there. That corroboration is being ignored.  Lying to Congress is breaking a law. Lying to the FBI is, too.

In this case, liar, liar your robe is on fire and you shouldn’t sit on The Court.

Today’s Senate Judiciary hearing on allegations of sexual assault by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was a milestone in the continuing disintegration of our institutions.

You probably watched the testimony so you have your own view of who is telling the truth. This is a classic “he said, she said.”

Dr. Christine Blasey Ford said she is “100 percent” certain the assault on her was by Kavanaugh. Kavanaagh testified that he’s “100 percent” certain he has never committed such an offense in his life.

She was clearly terrified giving her testimony. He was just as clearly angry and emotional, tearing up or choking up through his testimony.

Which was real?

My guess is both were real. Neither could act that well. The question is, what motivated those emotions. Dr. Ford was stepping onto a stage she did not seek, testifying literally in front of the nation. Judge Kavanaugh has held that stage before, but never as an accused sexual offender whose personal life and career were on the line and had already suffered major hits.

You choose who you believe.  Unfortunately, if you’re a senator you must choose who to believe because the Senate is going to vote on this nomination.

When Dr. Ford's testimony ended, I thought there was no way Sen. LIsa Murkowski or Sen. Susan Collins could vote in Kavanaugh's favor, so convincing was she. But then Kavanaugh came on, his angry up front and personal. And his partisan attacks began.

Personally, I believe her. From the first mention of her name, I could not understand what she had to gain from going public. She isn’t going to get a book deal, her own radio show or whatever out of this. In fact, she and her family have become targets of insults and threats and she was escorted around by a large security guard.

Kavanaugh has a life-time appointment at stake. His emotions clearly were real. He was choked up and tearing up in a manner you can’t fake. His anger and partisan attacks though were just as real. He was on the attack from minute one. Was it true outrage over the process? Was it the anger of an entitled man expecting his entitlement to sit on the Supreme Court?

This was not a criminal trial. It was, as was said, more of a job interview. I think he failed that interview. Even if he is innocent of the charge being leveled against him, the temperament he demonstrated was not the demeanor I expect of a Supreme Court justice. I get the anger. But the partisan nature of his attacks were not appropriate for a Court nominee.

Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t expect him to take it lying down but he brought a “left wing conspiracy” into play, something that no doubt appeals to President Trump who had thought Kavanaugh was being too wimpy in his response to the charge. He was clearly on the attack. Is that his true nature? Was a performance for the President who thought he was too wimpy up to today?

Well, he wasn’t wimpy during the hearing. He also was not Supreme Court material.