"Sure, Congress polls right around the popularity of 'Outhouse scuba diving' and 'Borrowing Charlie Sheen's toothbrush,' but then who wants to live in a country where we like our politicians? It's not like in 2016 we were high-fiving these guys. We get that a GOP Congress is a necessary evil. But we also get that a Democrat Congress is an unnecessary evil. ...

"Here's how this goes. The Democrats, along with the media and Team Tinfoil, keep whining about Russians Russians Russians, and normal people keep tuning them out. While they're babbling about nonsense that means nothing outside of the coastal looney bins, normal people are tuning into how the stock market and the job market just keep getting better, how we're not taking guff from foreign creeps anymore, and we're not talking about how much taxes will go up but about how much they'll go down.

"Tax reform is going to pass. Obamacare is getting repealed -- it's as dead in the Senate as it was in the House, which is not at all. Our military is getting rebuilt. We're going to stop leading with our chin on trade. Things are going to keep getting better, and people will see it.

"The only way the President can still screw this up is by choosing to screw this up. He won't do it by messing with liberals. Keep tweeting those twerps into a sputtering rage! It pays dividends every time he provokes them to new heights of lunacy."

"The 10-month-old Russia probe remains an investigation in search of a crime. The Obama team's unmasking of Flynn's identity in foreign-surveillance reports and leaking that classified information to The Washington Post is a crime in search of an investigation.

"Unfortunately, justice will have to wait for Comey's replacement to launch an aggressive inquiry to hunt down the leakers and lock them up. And he may first have to clean house to do it, starting with Comey's deputy."

"The last thing the country needs is another out-of-control probe that won't give us the answers we need about Russia and Trump. ...

"If we are to ever get to the bottom of the charges about Russia and Trump, some sort of bipartisan special commission or joint congressional committee will be necessary to produce a report that has a chance of being believed on both sides of the aisle. But given our experience with special prosecutors, we know that the appointment of one would provide neither justice nor closure to a bifurcated nation. To the contrary, despite the chorus of calls for such a move, a special prosecutor would be the worst-case scenario: It would create a prolonged investigation that would do little or nothing to give Americans the information they need. ...

"No matter how scrupulous the efforts of the FBI and Congress to investigate Russia's misdeeds, we all know that nothing short of Trump's head on a metaphorical spike will satisfy Trump's critics. If a bipartisan effort to deal with this issue is necessary, let it be a commission like the one that dealt with 9/11. A special prosecutor would encourage Democratic fantasies but do nothing to get to the bottom of an issue that might not involve the wrongdoing that Trump'€™s critics already take as self-evident fact."

"While the FBI was investigating Bill Clinton for the White Water corruption situation, President Clinton fired the FBI Director. The media took President Clinton's actions at face value. They did not question him. In fact, conservatives who raised red flags were dismissed. Today, we get to see what happens when a Republican does what Bill Clinton did. ....

"The reality ... is that many of those most critical of the President firing Comey were the same people demanding Comey be fired for his handling of Hillary Clinton's emails. We have a hyper-partisan environment in which all sides too easily and too quickly abandon intellectual honesty. It is notable that Lindsey Graham and Susan Collins, two of the GOP's most strident critics of Donald Trump, are okay with this firing.

"It is not a constitutional crisis, nor is it a dark day for democracy. It is a President exercising his constitutional duties on the advice of his cabinet ministers. The timing is bothersome and looks bad, but the underlying rationale suggests the decision was made thoughtfully. However, the left will never believe President Trump nor believe anything other than the worst possible conspiracies about him. Russiaism is the new Birtherism."

"Consider: Would the anxieties over the hacked [French Presidential candidate] Macron materials have ascended to such heights had the targets been a Republican and the Republican establishment? An imperfect example exists that helps test that question. The confidential Steele dossier about Trump, eventually published by BuzzFeed, began its life as a piece of confidential opposition research commissioned by an anti-Trump figure. The all-American purpose of oppo, as everybody knows, is to undermine -- or sabotage -- the candidate on the other side, but anonymously. Campaigns produce reams of it each election, and traditionally dispense it to reporters with a gavage, the barnyard instrument used to force-feed a pate goose. Journalists at the Washington Post, the Atlantic, Poynter and elsewhere damned the Steele dossier's publication but nearly every major news organization publicized its incendiary and prurient assertions. The outrage over the Steele dossier never approached the furor that greeted the hacked emails, suggesting that the establishment thinks Republicans aren't as deserving of protections from 'political sabotage' as Democrats.

"So, go ahead and cringe over the analysis and publication of hacked materials. Just you understand that it's the macro version of the micro thing the press does every day. And it's legal, as the Supreme Court ruled in 2001 in Bartnicki v. Vopper, when it properly held that the First Amendment allows the publication of illegally intercepted communications. The only defect in that ruling is that it contains no footnote stating that behind most great works of journalism is a daring theft or a stunning betrayal of confidence."

"The AHCA is far from perfect, but would be a substantial improvement over the Obamacare mess. Obamacare stifled choices and drove up prices.

"As the Senate reshapes the health care reform law, it should emphasize giving customers and states greater flexibility. Any bill should allow people to keep their current insurance. And it should focus on bringing down premiums, particularly for the young, healthy people opting out of the health insurance market because it is too expensive."

"A top Democratic member of the Senate Intelligence Committee says she has yet to see evidence of collusion between Donald Trump advisers and the Russian government.

"'Do you have evidence that there was in fact collusion between Trump associates and Russia during the campaign?' CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked California Sen. Dianne Feinstein during an interview on Wednesday.

"'Not at this time,' she responded.

"'Well, that's a pretty precise answer,' Blitzer said."

"College campuses still appear superficially to be quiet, well-landscaped refuges from the bustle of real life.

"But increasingly, their spires, quads, and ivy-covered walls are facades. They are now no more about free inquiry and unfettered learning than were the proverbial Potemkin fake buildings put up to convince the traveling Russian czarina Catherine II that her impoverished provinces were prosperous.

"The university faces crises almost everywhere of student debt, university finances, free expression, and the very quality and value of a university education."

"Because President Trump is a man in a hurry, here's how he can save time today when he welcomes Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to the White House.

"After the briefest of pleasantries, Trump can say, 'Mr. Abbas, your people should be preparing to celebrate the 17th anniversary of the creation of their own state. But Yasser Arafat foolishly refused to recognize Israel's right to exist at Camp David in 2000, so there was no deal, and history marched on without a Palestinian state.

"'That was a mistake you can rectify right here, right now,' Trump continues. 'I ask you, President Abbas, are you ready to recognize Israel as the Jewish homeland, renounce violence against it and negotiate peaceful, secure borders for two states?'

"It is a yes-or-no question. If Abbas won't say yes, the answer is no -- and there is nothing more to discuss. Trump can spend his windfall of free time on issues more likely to bring results."

"House Republican leaders and White House officials are increasingly confident about passing their long-stalled Obamacare replacement bill: More lawmakers than ever are committed to voting 'yes,' they say, and GOP insiders insist they're within striking distance of a majority.

"But the window of opportunity for Speaker Paul Ryan and his leadership team is closing fast. The House is scheduled to leave town for a one-week recess on Thursday, and some senior Republicans worry that failing to get it done by then would fritter away critical momentum. Skittish Republicans would return home to face a barrage of pressure from Democrats and progressive outside groups.

"Some senior Republicans and White House officials are advising Ryan (R-Wis.) and his top lieutenants to cancel the recess if needed, and to keep the House in session until they have the votes."