THE SAME OLD CYCLE – AT 11:21 A.M. ET:  The Democrats had one objective after Tuesday's brilliant performance by President Trump, and that was to shift attention from his speech.

The first attempt went badly – trying claim that Trump exploited the widow of Navy Seal William Owens.  That certainly backfired, and made the Dems look like the small timers they really are. 

Now we're on to something new – a story that broke, by some remarkable coincidence, the day after the president's excellent speech.  It deals with Attorney General Jeff Sessions and whether he had contact with Russian officials during the election campaign.  From The New York Times: 

WASHINGTON — Congressional Republicans began breaking ranks on Thursday to join Democrats in demanding that Attorney General Jeff Sessions recuse himself from overseeing an investigation into contacts between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. Those calls came after the disclosure that Mr. Sessions himself spoke with the Russian ambassador last year, in seeming contradiction to his testimony at his confirmation hearing.

The partisan furor that broke out with the Justice Department’s acknowledgment of the contacts late Wednesday began to take on a bipartisan sheen as the controversy spilled over into Thursday morning.

The House majority Leader, Representative Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California, said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that Mr. Sessions “needs to clarify” his testimony and that he also thought Mr. Sessions should recuse himself from Russia-linked investigations.

“I think – the trust of the American people — you recuse yourself from these situations,” Mr. McCarthy said, adding that, “for any investigation going forward, you want to make sure everybody trusts the investigation.”

COMMENT:  It looks like a molehill to me.  Someone will have to prove that 1) the Russians actually tried to interfere with our election to help Trump and 2) that the Trump campaign colluded in it.  Thus far I think the case is weak, but the Democrats are trying to drag out the issue because they have little else.

On the other hand, this follows a disturbing pattern – a Trump triumph one day, followed by an embarrassment the next.  Trump's campaign, after all, had a crudeness about it, and that continued through the early days of his administration.  But I do think Trump, whom I opposed for the nomination, is evolving, and could turn out to be an effective, consequential president, if he can overcome the obstacles being placed before him by a hostile press, an irresponsible opposition, and Trump doubters within the Republican Party.

March 2,  2017