| Morning Jolt
. . . with Jim Geraghty September 5, 2014 Bob McDonnell, Disgrace You should have taken the plea deal, Governor McDonnell. Virginia's 71st governor, Bob McDonnell, on Thursday became the first in the state's history to be convicted of a felony, turning a legacy dominated by steering the state through austere times into one tarnished by corruption. Just blocks from the state Capitol that served as the backdrop for his ascension to national prominence, a federal jury convicted McDonnell and former first lady Maureen McDonnell on multiple counts in U.S. District Court. | | Demote Harry Reid This Fall | | | | As a court clerk read the verdict count by count, finding Bob McDonnell guilty on 11 of 13 charges and Maureen McDonnell on nine of 13, the former governor dissolved into tears, covering his eyes and shuddering as several of his children audibly sobbed in the rows behind. The former first lady also wept, as did other family members and supporters. Judge James R. Spencer will sentence the McDonnells on Jan. 6. They could face decades in prison but are likely to be sentenced to considerably less time under federal guidelines. Defense attorney Henry Asbill said Bob McDonnell would appeal the verdict. Score one for Mitt Romney's vetting team. The lawyers I know were surprised by the scale of the verdict, but not the ultimate direction. McDonnell's defense — sure, I took all those gifts and didn't report them, but you can't prove a quid pro quo of favors to the donor — always seemed too cute by half to fly with a Richmond jury unlikely to be sympathetic to politicians, Republicans, or a silver-haired white guy who wears a Rolex. Chris Cillizza: There is simply no way that any politician who was as allegedly able and ambitious as McDonnell would not understand that the relationship between his family and Williams was deeply inappropriate. It's inconceivable. And yet, that was the case that the McDonnells sought to make in the weeks-long trial that saw almost seven dozen witnesses called. McDonnell, his lawyers argued, was simply doing for Williams what he would do for any Virginia businessman hoping to get attention for a product. (Williams was pushing a dietary supplement called Anatabloc.) That eye-rollingly-difficult-to-believe justification for the parade of gifts showered on the McDonnells was made even less believable by a number of former aides to the governor and First Lady who said they had repeatedly warned the two of the impropriety of their relationship with Williams. It's not that every little gesture between a donor and elected official needs to be documented and litigated, but that gray area of "chumminess" was always potential for trouble. The bar for "corruption" has probably been lowered, but that doesn't appear to be due to runaway prosecutors or vengeful juries: [Defense attorney Chuck] James noted that Williams was never able to testify that McDonnell or his wife ever promised him an official action in exchange for his gifts. Instead, the case against them was built around more low-key events, such as McDonnell's instructions to set up meetings for Williams or attending an event at the governor's mansion that marked the launch of one of Williams' new products. And prosecutors were unable to show that Williams got anything tangible for all the money he showered on the McDonnell family. Cillizza concludes, "I am left with a feeling of amazement at the vast gap between how McDonnell was regarded (including by me) as recently as two years ago and who he turned out to be. His judgment, which was touted as one of his best attributes, wound up being one of his worst." Tell me about it, Chris. 'The Sheer Threat Matrix, I've Never Quite Seen It This Bad' Posted late last night, my interview with Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee: GERAGHTY: When you get briefed by the intelligence community, do you walk out of the briefing feeling reassured that our government and all of our national-security apparatus have a good handle on this? Or do you walk out with an ominous feeling? ROGERS: It may be unfair for me to answer, because I see all of the problems, all over the world. On any given day, it can be concerning when we walk out. Now, the good news is that we have some world-class professionals who are dedicated to preventing a terrorist attack on the homeland. Some of these folks are as courageous as any patriot who ever walked on the soil of the United States. But you do worry sometimes about the sheer volume and number of threats . . . I think most people realize that we are just one small mistake away from another very big event in the United States. They get up every day and work their hearts out to make sure it doesn't happen. At the same time, the sheer threat matrix, I've never quite seen it this bad in the ten years I've been on the intelligence committee. Both the volume and the number of organizations that have expressed an interest in conducting attacks on the homeland is concerning. About half of al-Qaeda affiliates have either openly or surreptitiously said they support ISIS in its aims and objectives, which means they could be used in some kind of international attack. All of those things become very concerning. I'm very concerned that the posture of the president has been wrong: Al-Qaeda is dead, we don't have anything to worry about, I fixed the problem. Meanwhile, those of us on the intelligence committee saw this building, fomenting, over a period of a couple years, unabated. That has put us on a pretty dangerous road here. Eat Well This Weekend, and Appreciate Your Cook! Let's close out the week with two brief, delightful passages from Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook, which I'm enjoying reading, even though it will be a while before I attempt any of the recipes. First, here's Bourdain on how bad environments help create great cooking: Short growing seasons, bad transportation, minimal refrigeration, and hard luck are the story behind nearly every great original cook. Make no mistake. It is no accident that in just about every country you might want to visit, the good cooks seem always to hail from the most ***-backward and impoverished backwaters. Whether it's Minas Gerais in Brazil, Issan in Thailand, the Deep South in the United States, or some depressed, jerkwater berg in France, that's where good cooks invariably come from, the cooks "free," as A.J. Leibling put it, "of the crippling handicap of affluence." Take a long look at the cover of Jacques Pepin's magnificent memoir, The Apprentice. Look at young Jacques, age thirteen and a half, standing there frightened but proud in his baggy commis outfit. That's old school. You think young Jacques was looking forward to an assured future of sports cars for graduation presents, spring break, frat parties, and a summer abroad when he first struggled into those clothes? No way. On the slow food movement: You may feel, as I do, "I don't care if it makes me glow in the dark, or causes the occasional tumor in lab rats, as long as it tastes really, really good," but it is hard to argue with the proposition that slow food is more often that not good food; and within this wild, ungainly, and rapidly growing movement you will find all kinds of fascinating characters: renegade cheesemakers, artisanal bread makers, exotic mushroom wranglers (and poachers), raisers of boutique pigs, and a worldwide network of obsessive foodies -- all with varying agendas, and all of whom, like you, are interested in the good stuff. You don't have to switch to Birkenstocks, or save Flipper, or buy into the philosophy. You can just buy their cheese. Anyone who has abandoned a career as a Wall Street lawyer to dedicate his or her life to the production of artisanal sausage of or goat cheese — regardless of what kind of wacky conspiracy theories he might believe in, or her taste in music — is probably well worth knowing. ADDENDA: That strange mysterious project I hinted at in previous Jolts? Mickey White — a.k.a. @BiasedGirl on Twitter — and I are rolling out a new podcast that's heavy on popular culture with just a side sprinkle of politics. In our first effort, we cover non-Beltway Americans' embrace of tattoos, whether cultural conservatives play into attention-seeking celebrities hands with their outraged reactions, and what women and men mean when they say "clutch." Our second outing covers celebrity photo hacking, how Michael Sam's "fans" are hurting his odds for a successful NFL career, and the magic of interacting with famous people on Twitter. Listen here and check out the Facebook page here. Our show is produced by the fantastic Dave Perkins, who is soon to step into hosting duties Sundays from 5 to 8 am E.T. on WGUL in Tampa Bay. We need your help to give Harry Reid a demotion and send Washington a message! Click here to join our effort, and spread the word to your friends! Visit DemoteReid.com today.
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