I may need to clarify my comment that The New York Times is out for revenge against Team Hillary for lying to it for a year about Trump dossier funding and making it look silly. I still believe that — witness the rather aggressive article about Tony Podesta leaving his lobbying firm as the next step. But I didn’t mean to imply that the Times was going to back off its attacks on Trump.

Take, for example, yesterday’s Times article on George Papadopolous. In an object lesson on how a biased media outlet produces something that is both totally accurate and completely misleading, consider the first paragraph: “A young foreign policy consultant … is the first aide in the Trump campaign to plead guilty in the special counsel’s investigation into ties between the president’s associates and the Russian government.” See anything missing? The implication is that the guilty plea has something to do with collusion between Trump and the Russians when in fact it was solely related to lying to the feds about a minor timing matter. This doesn’t happen by accident.

And speaking of Papadopolous, the “professor” that was supposedly the initial domino in the chain of contact leading to “Russia” has denied that he ever suggested that he had dirt on Hillary. Oops. At best, that leaves Robert Mueller with a “he said, he said” jump ball. At worst, he is saddled with a key witness with zero credibility. Papadopolous may become the first guy in history to make up a story and then go to prison for lying to the feds about the made-up story. It seems ever more clear that he was having an Al Gore “I invented the Internet” career embellishment moment. But he still may go down for it anyway.

Maybe I’m just not up on FBI investigative protocols, but wouldn’t you think it might want to verify the key conversations before going public? I realize that scooping up the small fish and working your way up the food chain is standard FBI operating procedure, but the more info that comes out on this guy, the more it seems that the FBI targeted plankton, who has nothing to add. Is this really how the most powerful law enforcement entity on the planet should be conducting itself? No wonder trust in our institutions is at rock bottom.

Reports came out Monday that Seal Team 6 and the FBI had nabbed a militant in Libya who was involved in the 2012 attack on our consulate in Benghazi. Good for our team, but equally interesting was the way the event was reported by ABC News. The headline to its story read, “Benghazi ‘plotter’ [my quotes] captured in US special operations raid.” Gee, I thought the attack was the result of a spontaneous reaction to an anti-Islam video, not some pre-planned operation. I guess the ABC editors didn’t get the memo. Say goodbye to the cocktail party invites.

I’m still confused by a couple things. The media/Democrat talking points on Trump/Russia collusion have from the outset included the claim that because Trump said that he wished Russia would find the missing Hillary emails, that was proof he was colluding. So, assuming collusion is a bad thing one might want to keep under wraps, the best way for Trump to advance the cause would be to make a public statement that he was hoping for collusion? It was a sarcastic joke guys. Get over it and get a life.

The second has to do with the Trump dossier. If I have this right, the media/Democrats see proof of collusion in Russia meetings involving Trump’s son, and hoped-for meetings involving Papadopolous, both initiated by the Russian counterparts and based on the hope that dirt on Hillary was just around the corner. But nothing happened. On the other hand, the fact that Team Hillary spent around $10 million to directly solicit dirt on Trump from Russian operatives that has turned out to be bogus is legitimate opposition research. And by the way, how do you spend that much money digging up dirt? Who got paid for what? Inquiring minds want to know, and hopefully that includes Mueller.

Perhaps in recognition that the plea deal and the indictments didn’t come close to impacting the Trump/Russia collusion narrative, the media made a turn and focused their questions on whether Trump is going to fire Mueller and whether he is going to pardon his associates. No doubt that the media is so invested in their Trump narrative that they can’t see their hands in front of their face. The weakness of the plea and the indictments also hint that the Mueller folks are also wedded to the same narrative. As things unfold, let’s hope they have better vision.

Isn’t it interesting that the congresswoman at the center of the Gold Star Family/Trump issue has gone on radio silence? It took a few days, but I guess the Democrat focus groups came back with something akin to “Are you kidding me?” and shut her down. Think about it. In order for her accusations about Trump to have even a kernel of truth, you would have to believe that Trump would deliberately pick up the phone and call the widow with the full intent to insult her dead husband and make her feel even worse. Eventually, even the Democrats threw in the towel on that one.

The tax plan negotiations are beginning to look like classic DC vote buying. And while I would prefer a more principled approach to tax reform, if that’s what it takes, so be it. I’m referring to things like Sen. Susan Collins going public with demands that the estate tax needs to stay and rates should not be lowered for the top earners. That screams an obvious deal where the estate tax stays but the threshold is significantly increased, and the top rate stays but the threshold is significantly raised and the “rich” get the benefit of the lower rates up to the top bracket.

The same thing will happen on state/local tax deductions. The deduction will stay but will be phased out as the income levels go up. That’s not exactly simplifying the code, but everybody needs a win, and this will allow pols in certain states to declare victory and be a hero to their constituents. There is also talk of phasing in the lower corporate rate. That is the key element of the Trump effort to jump-start the economy and is a head fake to take pressure off the sacred deductions debates. The corporate rate will be 20% and will go into effect now. The tax deal will get done. The Democrats will cringe because it will be seen as a Trump win, but they can’t block it. Many in the GOP also don’t want to see Trump win but have no choice. If the tax deal fails, it’s game/set/match for the entire party; survival rules.

And finally: I’ve been waiting to comment on this for a week. Do you recall the press conference with Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell after their lunch a week or so ago? Trump gushed that they were on the same page on tax reform and swore that Mitch had always been his BFF. McConnell stressed that his primary job as majority leader was to keep the majority. If you ever wanted Exhibit A about how the establishment swamp views its mission in life, this was it. Job number one is to be, not do, something. I hope Trump keeps his eye on the prizes — get tax reform done — and then drains the swamp.