Elijah Cummings is Trying

(Update, October 17, 2019. Elijah Cummings died at 2:45 AM. He was 68. May his work and deeds continue)

Elijah Cummings had had enough. The 11-term congressman from Baltimore, after watching the House Oversight Committee fall into obstruction of President Obama and the systematic dismantlement of Hillary Clinton and then two years plus of self-parody and denial of the current occupant* of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, after seven-and-a-half hours of testimony and rancor during the public hearing (or flogging, if you will) of Michael Cohen, convicted felon and one-time lawyer, fixer and confidant of the current occupant* of 1600 Penn. Ave, gave his closing statement.

“ I’ve sat here and listened to all of this and it’s very painful. You made a lot of mistakes, Mr. Cohen, and you’ve admitted that. You know that one of the saddest part of this whole thing is that some innocent people are hurting, too, and that’s your family…I don’t know where you go from here…We are better than this. As a country, we are so much better than this…It sounds like you’re crying out for a new normal, to get back to normal. It sounds to me like you want to make sure that our democracy stays intact. I’m hoping that the things you said today will help us to get back there.

I mean, come on, now. When you’ve got in the Washington Post, our president has made 8,713 false or misleading statement…It sounds like you got caught up in it and some kind of way…President called you a “rat.” We’re better than that…You know what hurt me? That picture of you…