The Day America Lost Its Way

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

My colleagues might think it's OK that the Russians offered dirt on the Democratic candidate for president as part of what's described as the Russian government's effort to help the Trump campaign. My colleagues might think it's OK that when that was offered to the son of the president, who had a pivotal role in the campaign, that the son did not call the FBI, he did not adamantly refuse that foreign help no, instead that son said he would 'love' the help with the Russians. You might think it was ok that he took that meeting. You might think it's ok that Paul Manafort, the campaign chair, someone with great experience running campaigns, also took that meeting. You might think it's ok that the president's son-in-law also took that meeting. You might think it's ok that they concealed it from the public. You might think it's ok that their only disappointment after that meeting was that the dirt they received on Hillary Clinton wasn't better. You might think it's OK. I don't.

You might think it's okay that (the president's National Security Advisor Michael Flynn) secretly conferred with a Russian ambassador about undermining US sanctions and then lied about it to the FBI. You might say that's all okay - that's just what you have to do to win .. I think it's corrupt and evidence of collusion.

You might think it's OK that the president's son-in-law sought to establish a secret back channel of communication with Russians through a Russian diplomatic facility. I don't think that's OK. You might think it's OK that an associate of the president made direct contact with the GRU through Guccifer 2.0 and WikiLeaks. You might think it's OK that a senior campaign official was instructed to reach that associate and find out what that hostile intelligence agency had to say, in terms of dirt on his opponent. You might think it's OK that the national security adviser-designate secretly conferred with a Russian ambassador about undermining U.S. sanctions, and you might think it's OK he lied about it to the FBI. You might say that's all OK, that that's just what you need to do to win. But I don't think it's OK. I think it's immoral, I think it's unethical, I think it's unpatriotic and, yes, I think it's corrupt, and evidence of collusion.

I do not think that conduct, criminal or not, is OK. The day we do think that's OK is the day we will look back and say that is the day America lost its way.

-- House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff in response to Republican House Intel members' call for him to step down from his position on March 28, 2019

The president's response to this eloquent and fiery speech by the California Democrat and which should if we have any future to speak of appear in History textbooks for the next one hundred years or so to come was to ridicule Mr. Schiff as "little pencil neck." How apropos of 'the Beast.' I guess it's nice to know that a century after William Butler Yeats wrote his epochal poem "The Second Coming" the best do not lack all conviction, after all.