Mr. Sessions, why WERE you wearing that tiger suit?

For one day -- one lousy day -- conservatives felt free to do their tribal victory dance in celebration of the fact that Donnie had managed to get through an entire address to Congress without embarrassing himself. Even though Trump lied his ass off, the Republicans cried: Hosanna! He CAN be presidential! Reagan hath returned! We shall conquer in 2018!

The propaganda was premature. The Pentagon revealed -- again -- that the Yemen raid, which Trump had briefly turned to his political advantage, fetched no important intelligence. So why did William Owens die? Why did those children die?

Trump's day worsened from there.

The most important story to come out last night was the WP's revelation that Attorney General Jeff Sessions met with Russian ambassador Kislyak during last year's campaign. Session had given sworn testimony that he had not spoke to anyone connected with the Russian government. Perjury? So it would seem, although Sessions offered a Really Convincing Explanation: He had spoken to Kislyak not as a functionary of Team Trump but pursuant to his senatorial duties.

As you will recall, Flynn had a Really Convincing Explanation too. Every single time someone on Team Trump speaks about Russia, we get a Really Convincing Explanation. They deny wrongdoing while acting as guilty as a Bishop in a brothel.

The Trumpers always remind me of that great scene in Monty Python's Meaning of Life, in which the British army stalks a man-eating tiger (in Africa!) only to discovers that the "tiger" is actually two men in a striped costume. The tiger-men quickly offer a dozen different stories as to why they are in that suit: "We did it for a bet." "God told us to do it." "We're training as taxidermists and we want to get the feel of it from the animal's point of view." Despite the conflicting explanations, they deny any criminality: "Oh, come on! I mean, do we look like the sort of chaps who'd creep into a camp at night, steal into someone's tent, anesthetize them, tissue-type them, amputate a leg and run away with it?"

I'll embed the skit in this post. It pretty much sums the entire Trump act, doesn't it?

Sessions' explanation as to why he was caught wearing this particular tiger costume may not prove very durable. I have several reasons for saying that, but the primary one has to do with the widely-seen clip of Al Franken questioning Sessions during the latter's confirmation hearings. A couple of things seem very clear to me:

1. Sessions volunteered more than he needed to say. You may detect the nervousness of the guilty. I refer you to the "Oh, come on" quote above.

2. It seems quite possible that Franken asked what he asked because someone asked him to ask it. A trap was laid. That's Franken: He's good enough, he's smart enough, and gosh darn it, he'll fuck you up.

Everyone seems to have forgotten the key fact which came out during the Flynn imbroglio: The Russian ambassador thought that he had a completely secure means of communication, but his security turned out to be Not So Airtight. Go ahead and argue about the legality of NSA/FBI eavesdropping on Kislyak as he bantered with Flynn or Sessions or some other Tumpista. Nobody can dispute the legality of intercepting communications between Kislyak and folks back home in Moscow.

The question is, what can we do about this situation? Sessions is the AG, which places us in the ultimate who-watches-the-watchmen predicament. Many people are talking about the need for a special prosecutor, just as many mice talk about the need to bell the cat. But given the GOP's control of Congress, how likely is an honest and independent investigation?

If someone did whisper into Franken's ear, I hope that the whisperer had a plan, or at least a rough idea as to how to proceed.

Another point: We must not forget just who Kislyak is. 

Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador, is considered by US intelligence to be one of Russia's top spies and spy-recruiters in Washington, according to current and former senior US government officials.

Russian officials dispute this characterization.

Heh heh. So how would "US intelligence" know that Kislyak is "one of Russia's top spies and spy-recruiters"? Somewhere in a big, black building about twelve miles south of where I'm sitting right now is the transcript of Kislyak's various chit-chats. The intelligence gleaned has been dripping out slowly. Donnie, a proponent of water boarding, is learning what Chinese water torture feels like.

Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip.

The Republicans must be made to understand that there's only one way to make the dripping stop.

Politico offers a possible hint as to which drip might be the next to drop:

An Obama White House national security official said the administration was gravely concerned in its final days about increasingly apparent ties between Trump associates and Russians, and about what appeared to be promises made by more than one individual to representatives of Russian President Vladimir Putin about policy changes that would occur once Trump was sworn in as president.

The senior Obama White House official was not told the names of the specific individuals involved because the official’s portfolio was foreign policy, not intelligence, so they were not briefed on aspects of the investigation involving U.S. persons.

“It seems pretty clear that [former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn] was not a rogue here,” the senior official said. “I don’t believe that Flynn was the only person promising things to the Russians, communicating to them what would happen once the Trump administration came in.”

The senior official was not aware of any specific information suggesting that Sessions was one of the Trump associates discussing potential changes in U.S.-Russia relations once Trump was sworn in.

Kerry? Is he the "senior official"? Don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised.