There is one word that isn’t used much to describe the Trump administration, but a powerful one.  I mean, we all use descriptors like criminal, corrupt, bankrupt, immoral. deplorable, cruel, and many other accurate terms.  One word we don’t use much, but is appropriate, and that’s chickenshit.  Trump, his goons, and sycophants are truly chickenshit, boasting and talking big on television and Twitter, but shrinking from facing the music when the time comes.  Trump always fires people on Twitter or gets someone else to do the deed because he’s too weak to do it in person, like when he fired James Comey on Twitter.  It happened again yesterday when Bill Barr stupidly tried to fire Geoffrey Berman, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York by press release.  Barr lied in the press release saying that Berman had “resigned”.  The problem is that Berman hadn’t resigned and responded to Barr’s chickenshitiness with a Screw You response that he most certainly had NOT resigned and had no intention of resigning.  It was a rare golden moment in a vast landscape of darkness.

Since his appointment, Berman has drawn Trump’s ire by aggressively investigating his personal businesses, Giuliani, and Giuliani’s associates.  He’s the one who indicted Michael Cohen drawing his guilty plea.  Trump’s been wanting to get rid of him for months.

The hilarious part is that Barr can’t fire Berman because he was actually appointed by federal judges, not Trump, and confirmed by the Senate. To avoid oversight, Trump’s primary tactic is to make everyone in his cabinet and many leadership positions “acting”.  Like every other tradition and rule, Trump has shattered norms of past presidents by violating these traditions, rules, and even federal laws in plain sight, defying anyone with actual authority to do anything.  And, up until last night, it has worked like a charm.  Trump fired Preet Bharara in 2017, and has since not nominated a replacement for him. Joon Kim took his place, but stepped down in 2018.  Berman was appointed as acting US Attorney, but that was only good for 120 days.  Trump never forwarded his appointment to the Senate, so the US District Court for the Southern District stepped in and appointed Berman to the post.  In other words, Trump didn’t do his damn job, so the court did it for him.  Since the court appointed Berman, he is defying Barr by refusing to step down until the Senate confirms a new US Attorney.  I find this development and humiliation of Barr exceedingly entertaining.

Perhaps all this corruption is plain sight is now finally at least slowing?  Maybe, but one characteristic is stubbornly hanging on and that is Trump’s Chickenshitiness.