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Today's Commentary:  Premature fits of glee -- Ahab's hunt for the Great White Russian -- Rubber-necking at a car wreck -- Feeling holiday strain-- Forgetting the Clintons -- Evidence of Russian collusion -- Additional Mike Huckabee commentaries

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You might have heard the Bloomberg News report that Robert Mueller’s investigation had subpoenaed President Trump’s bank records relating to a $300 million loan from Germany’s Deutsche Bank. It was seen by many as a disturbing sign that Mueller had expanded his investigation far beyond its boundaries of looking into alleged Russian collusion in the election. But apparently, it was just more fake news. Trump’s attorneys say they confirmed with the bank that no such subpoena had been issued.

But once again, a fake news report set Trump haters into premature fits of glee because they’ve long wanted to dig into all of his tax and financial records, hunting for something, anything, to impeach him over. Frankly, that tells you more about them than it does about Trump.

READ MORE OF MY COMMENTARY HERE AND THEN LEAVE ME A COMMENT.  I READ THEM.

Mike Huckabee

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Ahab's hunt for the Great White Russian

By Mike Huckabee

It was reported last week, that Ahab Mueller’s endless hunt for the Great White Russian had cost taxpayers $5 million so far.  Yesterday, the Justice Department released the detailed report on the cost, and that figure was way low.  The total thus far is actually closing in on $7 million. That’s $3.2 million for high-dollar lawyers, personnel and other services (although some personnel were already on the federal payroll) plus $3.5 million for expenditures to support Mueller’s investigative team.  No word on if any of that was spent on surplus “I’m with Her” T-shirts for the agents to wear under their suits. 

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Rubber-necking at a car wreck

By Mike Huckabee

In the wake of the sexual harassment allegations against Matt Lauer and his sudden firing from NBC’s “Today” show, TV ratings for “Today” are…up?  It’s true: the week before the scandal broke, “Today” lost to ABC’s “Good Morning America” by 110,000 viewers.  The week after Lauer’s ignominious ouster, “Today” smashed its rival by over 539,000 viewers.

Of course, there’s no way to say what’s causing this, or if it will last beyond a few days.  Maybe it’s true that all publicity is good publicity.  Maybe it’s the “rubber-necking at a car wreck” phenomenon.  Maybe people tuned in to see if NBC would reveal any more salacious allegations, or what Lauer’s colleagues would say about him, or if another shoe (or pair of pants) would drop.  Maybe they thought it was the most extreme edition of “Where In The World Is Matt Lauer” ever.  Or maybe some have long wanted to watch “Today” without Matt Lauer and finally got their chance. 

Whatever the reason, let’s hope it doesn’t give ratings-challenged hosts any idea for ways to attract a bigger audience.

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Feeling holiday strain

By Mike Huckabee

The rise of online shopping has resulted in a boom for UPS, which is now delivering everything from computers to your lunch.  But at Christmas, the strain on delivery drivers is becoming unbearable.  I was up early working last week when a message appeared on my computer that a UPS delivery had just been made.  Sure enough, it had been left on my porch…at 5:30 am!  And that’s great, if the driver works the night shift.  Not so great if he's just starting a 12-hour shift behind the wheel.

At least, that’s the position of the drivers’ union, which is protesting a surprise announcement that UPS plans to institute a 70-hour workweek through the holidays.  They say no package is worth endangering the safety and well-being of drivers and the public.  The union says drivers plan to demonstrate against the new hours, which won’t help UPS deliver over 750 million boxes by Christmas.   

I miss the old days, when non-union scab reindeer delivered all the packages overnight.

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Forgetting the Clintons

By Mike Huckabee

There have been a lot of developments recently in the Roy Moore-Doug Jones Alabama Senate race, set for next Tuesday.  President Trump endorsed Moore.  Some Senate Republican leaders and donors have come around to the idea that it’s better to back him and deal with any issues later than give away a red state seat in a close Senate to a liberal Democrat.  Others are attacking him as an indefensible alleged sexual predator (Mitt Romney, Jeff Flake – who even wrote a symbolic $100 check to Jones’ campaign.)  And the DC media, who seemed to be sleepwalking through all the allegations against Bill Clinton and Hillary’s enabling, have suddenly become pillars of righteous rage about Moore.

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Evidence of Russian collusion

There’s finally evidence of Russian collusion to swing the results of races, except they’re Olympic races.  And other Olympic events.  An investigation by the IOC found that Russia had a state-run doping program that beefed up its athletes with steroids and other banned substances, along with a scheme to bypass doping tests.  It’s reportedly rivaled only by the infamous East German teams of decades past, which gave rise to comments that their female swimmers looked like Arnold Schwarzenegger in pig tails. 

The upshot is that Russia has been banned entirely from the 2018 Winter Games.  I’m never crazy about nations boycotting the Olympics, because that punishes innocent athletes who trained their whole lives and usually had nothing to do with the political issues involved.  But in this case, it sounds as if the athletes were aware of the cheating, and the ban is well-deserved.  I just wouldn’t want to be the one to tell them.  I hear you wouldn’t like them when they’re angry.

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Additional Commentaries

A "gift to the rich"

Eric Holder bloviates

Big man on campus fights free speech

Growing distrust of FBI and special counsel