What are we even doing here? The New York Times is out with a big story about how the administration’s argument for why President Donald Trump can build the arch is that he actually has approval from Congress already.
Yes, Congress from 1925 reached through time and approved the arch … with its mind?
The administration has touched on this one before in court, but let’s face it: the current Department of Justice is sort of a “throw everything at the wall and see if it sticks and scream at the judge if it doesn’t” sorta place right now, so they’ve honestly touched on pretty much every argument in court at this point.
But this seems to be the argument the administration has settled on as The One. The idea is that because Congress reviewed plans from 1924 as part of the Arlington Memorial Bridge Commission, and those plans called for two “slender and widely spaced columns,” that means they approved an arch.
Cartoon by Nick AndersonNick Anderson
Trump trotted out Mark Paoletta as the arch’s strongest soldier, with Paoletta penning an article for The Federalist about how necessary this is: “It is a national embarrassment that policymakers have neglected for more than 100 years to build a congressionally authorized monument on this circle.”
There is a national embarrassment here, buddy, but it isn’t that.
It’s painfully absurd to demand we all pretend that for over 100 years, no one knew that Congress secretly approved an arch and only President Donald Trump, in his infinite and majestic wisdom, discerned this approval had echoed down through time.
Like, come on, man. Do you even hear yourself?
Not sure if this is better or worse than the argument that the arch would double as a military installation, so building it is a matter of national security.
Related | Trump claims Congress said yes to his big dumb arch—102 years ago
Paoletta is making the rounds because he is the new chair of the National Capital Planning Commission, which Trump long ago stuffed with creepy bootlicker types, and Paoletta is one of the lickingist.
Paoletta has been a favorite of Trump’s to just sort of dump in whenever needed. He was a lawyer for the Office of Management and Budget during Trump’s first term and did cool things like participate in the attempt to shake down Ukraine that led to Trump’s first impeachment.
If you feel like you know the name, it’s because you have wasted your life paying too much attention to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Paoletta has been Thomas’s best bud since college or whatever, and was a key player in getting him confirmed. Later, he went on to write the most suc-kup, hagiographic book ever about Thomas, with a corresponding film, both called “Created Equal.”
Sigh.
Did I mention the film was paid for by Leonard Leo? Yes, Mr. Dark Money Remakes the Supreme Court himself.
Federalist Society Executive Vice President Leonard Leo speaks to media at Trump Tower in New York, Nov. 16, 2016.AP
Did I mention that Paoletta is one of the guys in the creepy lifelike picture at Harlan Crow’s resort getaway? Yes, the Harlan Crow who has enthusiastically been bribing Thomas for decades. Yes, the Harlan Crow who owns some of the creepy statues now sitting in Trump’s Rose Garden. Yes, the Harlan Crow who has a “Garden of Evil,” where he has statues of his fave dictators.
Somehow, all the bad things we’re stuck experiencing always converge on the same handful of terrible people.
Not to be a doomer, but the way this Supreme Court has been so amenable to letting Trump build the big dumb bribe ballroom, it feels distressingly likely that he’s going to get to build the arch.
Now, the court’s conservatives won’t be bold enough to say that, exactly. They’ll do it like they did the big dumb bribe palace ballroom—on the shadow docket, with no real explanation, kneecapping the lower courts that actually considered the matter. But the ruling won’t address the merits of whether he can build the arch; it’ll just say he can build it while they have a good long think about it.
This thing is going to be like the Reflecting Pool. It’s going to cost far more than it should, look terrible, and fall apart even while it’s being constructed.
But that’s a plus, actually. Since it’s going to be as well-constructed as the Temu Arch Replica from this summer’s Freedom 250 festivities, the one that started oozing a thick yellow fluid within a few days, it will be easy for us to tear it all down. Because we’re sure as hell gonna.
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