The Patriot Post® · Wednesday Short Cuts

For the record: “We’re at a point where we should be asking what Obama’s top intelligence hacks, then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and then-CIA Director John Brennan, were cooking in 2016. But guess what. CNN hired Clapper, and NBC News hired Brennan. Now they are paid by the networks to tell the folks at home that Trump is nutty for insisting they did anything nefarious.” —L. Brent Bozell & Tim Graham

A colossal backfire? “If [Robert] Mueller truly has nothing, there’s a serious case to be made that the Russia collusion investigation actually helped Trump more than it hurt him. And Democrats might just have to come up with a plan for dealing with Trump’s policies other than praying for an avenging angel to frog-march him from the White House.” —Ben Shapiro

The perennial impeachment gambit: “Every member of the House is accorded the opportunity to bring up impeachment. This is not something that the Constitution has bestowed upon leadership. It is something that every member has the right and privilege of doing. … And I think there is a good likelihood there will be Articles of Impeachment [if the GOP loses the House].” —Rep. Al Green (D-TX)

Interesting choice of terminology: “[Impeachment] will be available only if we don’t use it loosely and ring the bell every time something looks amiss. You can’t be the boy who cried wolf and have a viable impeachment power. You can’t use it over and over again against the same president. If you’re going to shoot him, you have to shoot to kill.” —Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe

Useless grandstanding: “I’m running for reelection to the U.S. Senate here in Massachusetts, and I pledge not to take a single penny from the National Rifle Association.” —Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), whom the NRA would never even consider supporting

And last… “So President Obama, who mocked Trump being on reality TV, just signed with Netflix for an unscripted series. That’s totally different than reality TV, right?” —Liz Wheeler