"Secretary of state? I'd be honored! Let me just check with my probation officer..."

After getting elected in large part by lying repeatedly about Hillary Clinton's emails, Trump now has David Petraeus on his short list for secretary of state ... yes, that David Petraeus.

The Hill reports:

Former Gen. David Petraeus is reportedly one of President-elect Donald Trump's finalists to be secretary of State.

If he's chosen, he'll have three days to notify his probation officer.

Petraeus was sentenced to two years of probation on April 23, 2015, for giving his mistress classified information.

"The defendant shall not leave the Western District of North Carolina without the permission of the Court or probation officer. Travel allowed for work as approved by U.S. probation office," says a court judgdment, reported first by Brad Heath of USA Today.

"The defendant shall notify the probation officer within 72 hours of any change in residence or employment," the document adds.​

But of course there's always Rudy Giuliani, who lobbied for Qatar and Venezuela ...

#DrainTheSwamp!

Good title, BTW.

I'm sure the Trumpsters will be along shortly to explain that this is totally different and much less of an issue then emails, for well...reasons.

Relatedly, this is the expression of a man who has never hated his life more than he does at this moment:

This seems like a terrible idea.

This frustrates me because I was hoping that Mitt would turn him down. I was hoping beyond hope that he was going to be the one principled man among the GOP candidates for Trump's cabinet to tell him to fuck off. So far, the only one I've seen who turned Trump down was early on, and that was John Kasich, who voted for John McCain instead of casting a vote for Trump.

Still, seeing Mitt accept is a shame. More empty words.

Sorry to disappoint - but I support Trump, just not this decision: I am totally against Trump having anything to do with Petraeus. That said, how the fuck can you slam Hillary for playing fast & loose with classified data then wanting to hire him? He is a fucking officer & a gentleman but committed CAREER ENDING INDISCRETIONS that would put a lower ranking military member (like myself) UNDER THE JAIL. As a military member I indeed have skin in the game. I think I speak for all of us ex-military when I say this kind of double-standard is wrong & widespread. The people that are educated and mature (AKA senior officers & non-commissioned officers) SHOULD KNOW BETTER! But those motherfuckers are the last people to keep their dick in their pants!
Yes, Petraeus might be intelligent, experienced and talented. Cry me a fucking river. There are HUNDREDS of retired military officers who are equally qualified but HAVE NOT BEEN BUSTED FOR CHARACTER DEFECTS like Petraeus. Fuck giving him a position! If I as an E-6 did what did I would be put UNDER THE JAIL - not given an opportunity at the highest levels of trust!

Were I Mitt, as soon as I walked out of a meeting with Trump, I'd start bowing crazily to the cameras like McCain did in 'Nam.

Accepting could actually be the principled position, if he's afraid of whatever dumpster fire would result if one of the other guys ends up in charge of our foreign policy ...

This deal is getting worse all the time.

Colin Powell made the same argument for why he stayed on as SoS, even though he knew the case against Iraq wasn't as strong as he would claim before the UN. How'd that work out for America and Iraq? If he had left, would we not have invaded Iraq? This isn't a dumpster fire we're talking about, this is an out-of-control wildfire, and the sensible thing to do is evacuate. Rather than trying to protect your property with a garden hose.

I have mixed feelings on the Romney thing. Part of me thinks nobody sane should have anything to do with Trump. But part of me thinks our only chance at avoiding a total disaster will come from people like Romney stepping in to prevent at least some pieces of shit from hitting the fan. The only way the 25th amendment can work here is if we have a majority of cabinet officers who aren't as crazy as Trump.

He's the only person in my adult lifetime who, if he had run for President, I would have worked for his campaign. God, the last 17 years would have been so different.

Yeah, let me show what the life of the sane person in Trump's cabinet is going to be like:



I speak as someone who worked for people who are like Trump (reminds me, I need to see if that prick's out of prison and running another one of his scams), as well as for former business partners of Trump.

if it wasn't clear before that Trump is simply engineering the World's Greatest Troll...bash Clinton for cozy relationship with bankers, especially Goldman Sachs - gets elected and appoints GS exec as Treasury Sec and floats their CEO for OMB....bashes Clinton for security issues, considers appointing Petraus.

Clearly the man is just fucking with all of us.

This just in: Democrats suddenly care about national security violations.

Petraeus was convicted of a crime, while countless millions of dollars wasted on Republican-led congressional investigations of Clinton still couldn't manage to find anything.

So basically, you might as well just admit that you have no rational defense for your God-King and be done with it.

Hilarious that you think that's going to work.

You'd actually have a better chance impeaching him than a 25th Amendment end run.

Which would set the nation even closer to civil war when idiot leftists like you gloat over helping to remove him from office.

Thankfully wikileaks found enough that made sure Clinton can't do any further damage than the already has.

The outrage coming over Petraeus is rich considering the effort to elect someone who has done at least 100x the damage.

Actually there is a shitload of stuff that Hillary could be indicted on. The FBI just dropped the ball.

And there are still investigations into the Foundation which could send her up the river.

You still can't muster anything better than "But ... but ... Hillllarrriiiieeeeee!!!111," I see.

It's all I need.

Your concession is accepted.

I do not agree with you that this is a fire of any kind but if I pretend you're right that this is a fire you are still wrong.

This is the country we are talking about. Out-of-control wildfire or not you don't evacuate. You get in there and fight like hell to save the country. If Romney believes as some think he does that he needs to get into a position to help prevent problems from erupting then he should lobby Trump to be SOS.

In a wildfire you can evacuate to the next area that's not on fire. When it's the country there is no where to evacuate too. You either fight the fire and win or you burn.

Personally I can't see Trump giving Romney any position. Not after what Romney did during the campaign. I can see Romney giving political advice and Trump taking it. I'd actually be shocked if Romney was given any position in the administration.

Or to put it another way: Since we can't just evacuate the entire country, Romney might view himself as the best available prospect to be a firefighter.

Much like Trump accepting the Hildabeast's concession.

Indeed. Impeachment only takes half the House and ⅔ of the Senate. 25th amendment takes ⅔ of both chambers to be guaranteed to stick.

On the other hand, would it surprise anyone if Trump was too ignorant of the Constitution to know that he could just write a letter to the Speaker and Senate President Pro Tempore to get his power back?

You think he can't read? You think his advisers can't read?

Oh I have no illusions about that. I raise the point because in a sane world, he would in fact be kicked by the cabinet.

Agreed, it is sufficient to mark yourself an idiot.