David Frum: Russian-hacked material did damage -BECAUSE- Russia found a willing accomplice in Trump

[kpete]

Russian-hacked material did damage because, and only because, Russia found a willing accomplice in the person of Donald J. Trump

It was the president-elect’s hyperbolic characterizations of the pilfered material that turned routine documents into the stuff of scandal.

..........

“It’s all just an attempt to delegitimize Donald Trump.” That’s the argument you hear from Trump supporters each time new information comes to light about how hard Russian spy services worked to damage Hillary Clinton. You heard it again on Thursday.

The Trump supporters are 100 percent right: The information is delegitimizing. The president-elect of the United States reportedly owes his office in considerable part to illegal clandestine activities in his favor conducted by a hostile, foreign spy service. It’s hard to imagine a crisis of presidential legitimacy more extreme than that. But that’s no argument against airing this information. It’s precisely why the information must be aired. [...]

Without Trump’s own willingness to make false claims and misuse Russian-provided information, the Wikileaks material would have deflated of its own boringness. The Russian-hacked material did damage because, and only because, Russia found a willing accomplice in the person of Donald J. Trump.

...........
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/12/how-trump-made-russias-hacking-more-effective/511880/

[Achilleaze]

1. Spawned by the Evil Empire, the Republican regime is totally illegitimate

[mazzarro]

17. Will that make him iPOTUS by Jan 20th?

[tblue37]

2. K&R. nt

[Gothmog]

3. Frum is correrct

Trump used the material from the Russian hacks and is still in denial about Putin's involvement in this scandal

[JHan]

5. the press got played, Trump is getting played, Repubs are getting played..

..because their info is out there as well.

And the Media dusting up scandals out of barest of nothings, journalistic integrity took a nose dive.

[NewJeffCT]

4. It wasn't just Trump

It was much of the RW media out there blowing it all out of proportion and elevating the non-scandal - CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, the NY Post, NY Observer, Washington Times, Breitbart, Drudge, etc.

If Sanders had won the nomination and hacked emails of his staff were released, I'm sure they'd have revealed a lot of denigrating comments about Clinton and her people in them. And, I can only imagine the vileness we'd have seen in the Trump inner circle emails.

[mtngirl47]

13. In fact, Sanders told the Washington Post

“Trust me, if they went into our emails — I suppose which may happen, who knows — I’m sure there would be statements that would be less than flattering about, you know, the Clinton staff. That’s what happens in campaigns.”

(Sorry I can't link to WaPo...but here's a link to Politico with the quote)
http://www.politicususa.com/2016/10/24/bernie-sanders-response-shows-cares-clinton-wikileaks-emails.html

[JHan]

6. K&R

[lark]

7. Idiot boy-king is going to destroy the world,

through sheer greed and stupidity. Any country that sucks up to him can do whatever they want, and it's OK, because they "love" him. It's only about him, just like Hitler was only about Hitler So many scary parallels, from salute, to "studying" Hitler's speeches for 10 years, to racism and misogyny to supporting the oligarchs while destroying the working class. Welcome to our own 4th Reich.

[madaboutharry]

8. David Frum of all people becomes a leading voice of The Resistance.

What a turn.

I truly despised David Frum during the days of the Bush administration. The man had hard core neocon blood running in his veins. He probably still does.

But, you must admire his integrity. His willingness to be forever shunned by the emerging republican party of Trump. He has proven that he is a true patriot who sincerely loves America. Although his world view is polar opposite from that of progressives, he is demonstrating that he has honor. I give him credit for that.

[salin]

10. He started that dive (into being shunned) in the ACA battles

I think it was his first foray against conventional GOP strategy. Called for GOP to be involved in crafting the solutions to a *real* crisis and move into modernity as a party. He has made some other moves, like this, that show integrity.

[NewJeffCT]

16. Unfortunately for Frum

the GOP has no incentive to change - come January 21, they will control the White House, The House, the Senate and most state governorships and state legislatures. Why mess with success?

They're close to being able to call for constitutional amendment because they control more than enough state legislatures - be ready for constitutional amendments to ban abortion and ban gay marriage.

[bigtree]

9. that's complicity

...pure and simple.

Explains a lot about why he's determined to tamp down reports and suppress an investigation.

[Ligyron]

11. Right, ,if Trump had come out and decried this hack like a good American

maybe it would have been different.

He and his team are still looking for ways to ignore this interference by a foreign actor.

"Who knows? Maybe I'll even attend an intell brief. Like next week maybe?"

[rocktivity]

12. Candidate for this year's "You Call This NEWS?" Award

Congrats, Duh Donald -- you got in under the wire!


rocktivity

[world wide wally]

14. It was Trump's MO to use information from Russia and statements from the FBI to slander

Hillary endlessly.
Without that, all he had to talk about would have been his lousy poll numbers.

[HopeAgain]

15. What will the Republican Congress do??

Is it going to be a step forward and protect the United States of America?

Or take the ass-covering, unpatriotic approach and let Trump put self-interests before American security??

Their choice... work to preserve our institutions, or start practicing their "sieg heils"

Unfortunately, I fear it will be the latter...