Yesterday, the Brookings Institution issued a position paper authored by Norman Eisen, Richard Painter, and Laurence Tribe called THE EMOLUMENTS CLAUSE: ITS TEXT, MEANING, AND APPLICATION TO DONALD J. TRUMP.  Here are the brief bios on the authors as published by Brookings:

“Norman L. Eisen, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, was the chief White House ethics lawyer from 2009 to 2011 and ambassador to the Czech Republic from 2011 to 2014. He is the chair of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). Richard W. Painter, a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, was the chief White House ethics lawyer from 2005 to 2007. He is the vice chair of CREW. Laurence H. Tribe is the Carl M. Loeb University Professor and Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard University.”

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UPDATED FOR SPELLING CORRECTION: Cheeto Jesus has been Tweet Storming this morning, starting early.  Here’s one of his latest missives that I screen shot:

It’s unprecedented, genius.  If only he could be un-presidented.

Unbelievably, it’s still up on Twitter if you want to have a look before his minder wakes up and deletes it (no, I’m not going to link it for you).

UPDATE: CJ’s minder got up late this morning and has corrected the spelling.  Dammit.

In the last couple of days, big time mainstream republicans have backed Tillerson for Secretary of State.  The problem is, though, that they left out a little detail about their endorsements: they all work for Tillerson’s company, Exxon Mobil.

James Baker, Secretary of State under Bush I and who led the recount effort for Bush II, strongly endorsed Tillerson, hailing his “management skills”.  He left out the fact that his law firm, Baker Botts, represents Exxon including a price fixing allegation against the company.

Robert Gates and Condoleezza Rice also strongly endorsed Tillerson heaping praise on his abilities and suitability for the job, but dodging questions about his close relationship with Vladimir Putin.  They also left out the fact that their consulting firm, Rice Hadley Gates, also works for Exxon.

Most of the MSM has ignored the clear conflicts in these endorsements.  Politico is reporting it and surprisingly, since there is no Ebola outbreak this month, so is CNN.

I’m not a big fan of Lindsey Graham, but sometimes he delivers great lines.  Yesterday in an interview with Wolf Blitzer, he delivered one:

“If it was a 400 lb. guy, it was a 400 lb. Russian guy.”

It’s a conflict, so he’s postponing to January, which is a conflict.