Don't think he won't do it

From The Hill (also here):

Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) said Friday that "rumors" on Capitol Hill suggest President Trump could fire special counsel Robert Mueller before Christmas, after Congress leaves Washington for the winter recess.

“The rumor on the Hill when I left yesterday was that the president was going to make a significant speech at the end of next week. And on Dec. 22, when we are out of D.C., he was going to fire Robert Mueller," Speier told California's KQED News.

"We can read between the lines I think," Speier said. "I believe this president wants all of this shut down. He wants to shut down these investigations, and he wants to fire special counsel Mueller."

The ranking Democrat on the committee, Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.), also said Friday that he is worried that Republicans leading the committee are seeking to shut down the committee's investigation by the end of the year.

Christmas would be the perfect time for such a move, since people will be distracted by the holidays and by family obligations. Moreover, winter has hit the east coast rather hard. Normally, I love the idea of a white Christmas -- but not when we need to mount a mass protest.

Bias: If Comey was pro-Clinton (as the Trumpers claim), why did he deep-six her election chances -- and why did he keep the Steele dossier under wraps? Why didn't Comey inform the public that Trump was under investigation?

I'm sure that some FBI personnel have indeed disparaged Trump privately and donated to Democrats. So what? They have that right. I'm sure that many FBI personnel have donated to the GOP: That, too, is their right. Everyone knows that most employees of the Bureau tend to be conservative. Comey is a Republican and so is Mueller.

As Ted Lieu noted in a recent tweet:

Dear @JohnCornyn: FBI Director Christopher Wray gave over $39,000 exclusively to Republicans. Are you okay with that? Because if you are, then you need to shut up with the partisan talk about our dedicated, professional and patriotic FBI officials.

(Lieu wrote in response to this.)

Bill Palmer says that that these rumors of Mueller's imminent firing are a massive head-fake:

The Republican Congress is making all the anti-Mueller noise that it can, so that once Mueller takes Trump down, it can tell Trump’s base that it tried to stop Mueller. This is all about the 2018 congressional elections.

That's my problem with Palmer: He presents optimistic, blue-sky speculation as if it were proven and irrefutable. Sorry, but I just don't do optimism. Jackie Speier would not be party to the effort that Palmer describes.

I listened to Rachel Maddow's recent "round table" discussion: At no point did any of her guests explain what prvents Trump from firing Rosenstein and finding someone willing to do the dirty deed. Everyone seems to think that Trump will refrain from taking such an extreme action because such things are not done. Haven't we yet learned? Trump will do what others would be ashamed to do.

Look once again at the image in the upper right corner of this blog. When a lone protestor stood up to the tanks in Tiananmen Square, the world admired the protestor. Trump praised the decision to call in tanks.

Never forget that fact.