SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:57 P.M. ET: 

TRUMP DELAYS DEM MEMO – FROM THE HILL:   President Trump is not ready to approve the release of a Democratic memo meant to rebut a document he declassified last week that was authored by Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee, the White House announced.  White House counsel Don McMahon wrote a letter to House Intelligence Committee chairman Dev in Nuns (R-Cal if.) explaining that “although the president is inclined to declassify” the Democratic memo, the administration believes it would create “especially significant concerns” for “national security and law enforcement interests."  Trump’s legal team insists that it came to that conclusion at the behest of senior officials at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Justice (DOJ).  In a separate letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray, McGahn highlighted the information the White House says it believes is problematic and should not be released.  It's been reported that the Dems loaded their memo with problematic, sensitive material, to force the president to delay its release.   Then the Dems could claim that Trump was trying to suppress it, which indeed they're now claiming.  The memo, cleaned up, will eventually be out.

AWKWARD – FROM FOX:   A possible thaw in diplomatic relations between North and South Korea continued over lunch Saturday at the Blue House in Seoul, residence of South Korean President Moon Jae-in.  Moon's guests were Kim Yo Jong, younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and other senior delegates from Pyongyang, whose visit to South Korea is coinciding with the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.  On Friday, Kim Yo Jong, 28, became the first member of the Kim family to cross into the South since the 1950-53 Korean War. The lunch marked the first time a North Korean delegation was hosted at the Blue House since November 2007.  Nonsense.  The North Koreans are on a charm offensive, but their nuclear and missile programs continue.  The current leader of South Korea is seen in Washington as overly soft, but the people of South Korea appear to realize this and are steadfast allies of the United States.

ROLE REVERSAL – FROM COLLEGE FIX: When Education Secretary Betsy DeVos rescinded the Obama administration’s Title IX guidance documents, some states considered legislation that would codify its provisions in their own laws, namely a low evidence standard and preferential treatment of accusers.
The co-author of a California codification bill, vetoed by Gov. Jerry Brown, and national leader in the #MeToo movement has now herself been accused by multiple men.  It’s causing Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia immediate headaches: A college where she was scheduled to speak today has postponed the event.
She also announced Friday she was “voluntarily taking an immediate unpaid leave” from the Assembly “so as not to serve as a distraction or in any way influence the process of this investigation,” even as she disputed the allegations.  This was bound to happen.  The great majority of charges in this area are made against men, of course, but there have been disturbing cases where women are charged,

February 9, 2018