Pierce: There's Another Side to Trump's New Stormy Daniels Defense: 'The Leach Effect'

[mcar]

There's Another Side to Trump's New Stormy Daniels Defense: 'The Leach Effect'
Porn star payoffs are just part of being rich and famous, you see.


BY CHARLES P. PIERCE
MAY 3, 2018

By now, everybody and his mouthpiece has heard that supergenius lawyer Rudy Giuliani pretty much gave away the store on Wednesday night regarding the piquant details about how hush money got “funneled”—his word, not mine—to Ms. Stephanie Clifford, d/b/a Stormy Daniels. Give Sean Hannity credit for this much—he appeared to be completely gobsmacked by the revelation that the president* reimbursed Michael Cohen for the $130,000 he’d paid out to squash the details of a liaison that the president* claims never happened....

I’m more intrigued by the other part, though, the part where the president*’s electric Twitter account argues that, because he is a “celebrity” and part of the “people of wealth,” he is constantly enmeshed in rarefied legal complications that we lowly commoners cannot understand—like having to “funnel” money to our lawyer to pay off the porn stars with whom we did not have affairs. This leads us into part of the president*’s appeal that is too little discussed. Call it the Robin Leach Effect.

Back when the president* was blighting the landscape merely as a New York glitterati nuisance, Leach hosted a program called Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, which took the denizens of America’s tract homes and double-wides into the fascinating lives of wealthy people who didn’t give a damn about them. Oddly, this did not necessarily result in jealousy and legitimate populist ridicule. (Think Ms. Loretta Lynn’s classic rendition of Shel Silverstein’s “One’s On The Way,” ) Often, it translated into a kind of identification, a combination of vicarious luxury and wistful hope that, one day, all of this could be yours. The show was a very big hit, and Donald Trump was one of Them that you hoped could be You one day....

Trump counted on that to help him get elected and now, apparently, he’s counting on it to blind his devotees to the obvious absurdity of this situation, and of his clumsy attempts to get out of it. I have to admit: Emmet Flood, the president*’s new lawyer, certainly hit the ground running on Thursday.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a20134433/trump-stormy-daniels-payoff-the-leach-effect/

[DBoon]

1. "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" epitomized the Reagan era

How far we had gone from the Great Society

[jodymarie aimee]

2. What does Charlie mean

Flood hit the ground running today? I have heard nothing...it's all Rudy rudy rudy...

[emulatorloo]

3. I think he was being satirical about Flood. Because as you say it has been Rudy Rudy Rudy

Not a peep from Flood, the new alleged “adult in the room.”

[Hekate]

4. Countdown to how long before Flood hits the exit door running...nt

[Mr. Ected]

6. I think Flood must have authored the series of tweets that "Trump" sent this morning

They were far too coherent and "legal" to have been scribed by the orangutan creature.

[emulatorloo]

10. I sorta think Rudy may have written them, with his lawyer cap on

They are pretty lame, I would think flood could do better. YMMV

[Hekate]

5. Chaz Pierce has the sharpest eyes around

One might even say piercing. I love his posts.

[jodymarie aimee]

8. I always say if I die and come back as some person

I want it to be Charlie...I am a writer, too...

[wryter2000]

9. I am a writer who actually makes a bit of money at it

And I sure wish I could write like Charlie Pierce

[mcar]

11. Me too

I wish I had a smidge of his talent.

[BSdetect]

7. "Rich and famous": American Royalty.