By Bob Gaydos

Take the test

    Life sometimes catches up with you even when you’re trying to preserve your sanity and help save your country from fascism. Bills have to be paid, shopping has to be done, bushes pruned, dogs and cats and birds have to be fed. Even in retirement, there are commitments, meetings and friends to draw your attention.

     So, just to be sure I didn’t miss anything important last week, I paused to take the Associated Press’s weekly news quiz. I aced it, nine out of ten. Editor level mastery, AP said. OK, but oh my god, if you know the right answers, what a too typically depressing week.

     We started with a question on what a Senate committee voted to do about Dr. Anthony Fauci: Subpoena, censure, revoke his license or hold him in contempt? Then we’re asked what the Trump administration announced for Headstart: Raise teachers’ pay, smaller classes, new programs, or eliminate regulations?

   Then they wanted to know why Capitol One closed all of Trump’s bank accounts: He asked them to do it, or he was inactive on his accounts. Or maybe there were too many overdraft fees or concern over possible money laundering. Hmmm.

    Then, AP wanted to know who jumped in on badmouthing FIFA president Gianni Infantino for basically trying to sell off FIFA. And there was the matter of Trump badmouthing U.S. attorney Jeanine Pirro, whom he appointed, in the case over the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, wondering why she stopped prosecuting his pet project.

     There was also some musing about what prompted the salmonella outbreak that caused Chipotle to remove, yes, jalapeños from some restaurants. (Nothing about lettuce and diarrhea.) Then we had Senator Bernie Marino saying his former son-in-law, Max Miller, should resign from the House because — I’ll give you this one: domestic abuse allegations. Also, Trump was ending a subsidy for a Medicare program. Take your pick: A, B, D or Medigap?

      I took a guess on one of them: What did singer Ariana Grande decide to do after wrapping up her Eternal Sunshine tour next month? Looking at the state of the world from just this one week’s worth of questions (and answers), I figured she’d just like to go away and take a break from all of it. I was right.

     I’d like to do that too, Ariana, but there’s still a) bills to be paid, b) dogs to be fed, etc. and, as evident from the questions, c) fascism still to be fought.

By Bob Gaydos

Dr. Anthony Fauci at Senate hearing.

    “Did Fauci help himself?“

    That was the question. It could just as easily have been, “Did Fauci hurt himself?” Actually, I think that really was the question.

      The short answer was and still is, “I don’t know.”

       But we’ll soon find out.

       To me, it seemed obvious that the decision by Dr. Anthony Fauci to respond to every question from the Senate Homeland Security Committee by invoking the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination was simply Fauci following the advice of counsel. No one looks good repeatedly invoking the Fifth Amendment, but no one gets indicted following that procedure either.

         With Senate Republicans, especially committee chairman Rand Paul, looking to make good on Donald Trump‘s desire to get revenge on all his perceived enemies, the hearing was clearly intended as a trap before it began. The big question was where the land mines were planted.

        Fauci having been preemptively pardoned by Joe Biden in 2023 for any and all actions taken while Fauci was in charge of the government’s response to the Covid pandemic, Republicans needed something new with which to charge Fauci.

      That could be contempt of Congress by not showing up at a hearing or lying to Congress about something that happened after the date of the Biden pardon. That’s probably what Paul was looking for and he was aided with a copy of Fauci‘s personal diary which he kept while in office. That was given to the committee, unredacted, by Health Secretary Bobby Kennedy Jr., a notorious anti-Vaxer who disagreed with Fauci’s approach to Covid, which included vaccines.

       Not knowing what material the committee might have and concerned that Fauci might not accurately remember what he wrote in his diary or said to someone at some point, the lawyer said, simply, take the Fifth.

     And Fauci did so, even when other Republican committee members ventured into the absurd by asking about the time of day, what color tie he was wearing and other nonsense in an effort to make Fauci look, well, guilty. One congressman even got obscene. In the process, they just looked petty. Routine for Republicans these days.

       As for the wisdom of Fauci deciding to invoke the Fifth, one might look to an expert, Fauci’s primary protagonist, Donald Trump. The man who once said you should never trust anyone who invokes the Fifth  Amendment, actually followed his counsel’s advice and invoked it more than 400 times in his Stormy Daniels trial in Manhattan. (It didn’t help.) Trump has also invoked the Fifth many times in depositions in a variety of cases over the years. He undoubtedly learned that lesson from his early counsel, Roy Cohn, who also taught it to Mafia goons. Looking guilty to the public doesn’t put you behind bars, Cohn counseled. Saying something stupid (contrary to verifiable facts) to the police, Congress or in court can. There’s a reason for the amendment.

      So, did Fauci help himself? It depends on what you mean by “help.” Some of the heroic bloom is obviously off the rose with Fauci, but that’s life. I still don’t know if he has anything to hide. I don’t think Republican committee members came off looking great and I don’t think Paul gained any points except with the hard core MAGAs. He’s been out to get Fauci ever since the doctor tossed the “liar” charge back at Paul, an ophthalmologist, at a hearing in 2023. He’s now threatening to hold  a contempt vote on Fauci for his “refusal to answer questions.”

     Life is full of choices. We all have to live with them. Help or hurt, Fauci made his.