All eyes are on Iowa for tonight's caucus results. But problems with reporting have delayed the results .

Iowa is complicated. I remember from 2008 that the caucus I attended was like musical chairs. First everyone goes to their part of the auditorium where someone is holding their candidate's sign. After a preliminary vote, the candidates who didn't get 15% were eliminated. Then the hard bargaining begins with the candidates who made the cut vying for the votes of the losers' supporters. Then they voted again. Edwards and Hillary ended up being 7 votes apart, state-wide. Nobody got any actual delegates -- what they got were delegates to the state convention which in June, 2008 picked national delegates.

This year the rules changed so things are even murkier. As the New York Times reports: [More...]

Will JLo and Shakira be great as Superbowl half-time performers? Will anyone ever top Michael Jackson's 1993 performance?

As for commercials, I have never remembered a single one other than the one with Cindy Crawford and I didn't see it while watching the Superbowl but years later on late night tv.

For those of you watching, feel free to share your thoughts. (I am not watching the game but have it playing on a TV in another room so I know when half-time begins -- the crowd sounds really loud). For those of you not watching, here's an open thread, all topics welcome. [More...]

Donald Trump's lawyers are a snooze. Listening to disjointed Sekolow is like listening to talk radio. Yesterday the lawyer I was listening to in the car who talked about the legal intent of the impeachment clause of the Constitution was very articulate but I thought his citing of the Federalist papers and quotes were selective and didn't paint a fair picture. He kept saying the House didn't give Trump a chance to fight the subpoenas in court before jumping to impeachment. Wasn't it Donald Trump's responsibility to go to court and seek to quash the subpoenas on privilege grounds? Did he do that? (I don't know the answer but I don't remember reading about a legal challenge).

Also, the lawyer kept repeating the equivalent of "good faith reliance upon advice of counsel" as a defense for Trump. Is that a defense to abuse of power? In criminal cases, that defense is usually limited to specific rather than general intent crimes (willfully vs knowingly). I don't see the willful intent in abuse of power (as opposed to obstruction of Congress by disobeying subpoenas but I'm following this sporadically so I may have missed something.

Trump lawyer Pam Bondi's attempts to smear the Bidens will likely only work with diehard Trump supporters who are already conspiracy theorists. But I still don't want Biden to be the nominee based on his horrendous 25 year record on crime legislation. (Bill Clinton has at least admitted the 1994 crime bill was a mistake.) [More...]

The New York Times has made its endorsements for Democratic candidate for President. It's picked two candidates, independently. (i.e., the Times is not suggesting a two women ticket). And those candidates are: Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren.

“There will be those dissatisfied that this page is not throwing its weight behind a single candidate, favoring centrists or progressives,” the board writes. “But it’s a fight the party itself has been itching to have” since Hillary Clinton’s defeat in 2016, “and one that should be played out in the public arena and in the privacy of the voting booth.”

.... “Ms. Klobuchar and Ms. Warren right now are the Democrats best equipped to lead that debate. May the best woman win.”

I agree. [More...]

Time for a new open thread. I know there's lots of attention being paid to the impeachment and Ukraine matters, but surely other things are happening.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

The Parnas documents disclosed by the House y are pretty devastating to Rudy Giuliani and by implication, to Donald Trump. They are available here.

The worst may be that it appears from released text messages between Parnas and Robert Hyde that the former Ukranian ambassador Yovanovitch, who was fired by Trump, was being physically tracked. No wonder she testified she felt she was in danger. The Ukranian Government has initiated a criminal investigation to look into this.

But wait, like any good infomercial, There's More! Lev Parnas has completely broken with Trump and Rudy, says Trump was aware of the plan to get the Ukraine government to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden, and that he's now eager to cooperate fully with the Government. [More...]

Sen. Kamala Harris has dropped out of the Democratic race to be the Presidential nominee.

Will she be the VP candidate?

She will be delivering a speech soon.

Personally, I'm glad. She is a career law enforcement officer and she peppers too many phrases with references to putting people in jail.

Who will be next to drop?

On Monday, the House Judiciary Committee will begin holding impeachment hearings on what charges to include in the Articles of Impeachment.

The Ukraine report is expected to make up the core of Democrats’ likely articles of impeachment against Trump. Lawmakers leading the inquiry have suggested Trump could face an article alleging abuse of power for withholding military aid and a White House meeting from Ukraine while Trump and his allies pressured the country’s new president to investigate Democrats.

The Committee has given Trump a deadline of today for notifying them as to whether his counsel will participate. [More]

The impeachment hearings continued today. The witness on today is former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie L. Yovanovitch.

It is really inappropriate that Donald Trump is tweeting insults to her during her live testimony. How is this not witness intimidation -- as to her and future witnesses? It's absurd that he gets away with this kind of disrespect.

She just finished her testimony and Rep. Nunes, a Trump puppet, called it a show trial and mocked the hearing. Instead of rebuking him, the Democrats just ignore him.

America is upside down and turned around. Donald Trump is not just a global embarrassment, he is a charlatan that has to go. Maybe when Rudy gets charged and turns on Trump, saying everything he did was directed by Trump, Trump, like Nixon, will take his final walk, head down, across the White House lawn. One can hope.

James Corden is all dressed up tonight with a three piece dark suit, blue shirt and red tie -- I think it's for Hillary and Chelsea who are his guests.

James was doing his monologue and got to a part about Trump tweeting out support for Sean Spicer on DWTS, and how politicians shouldn't do entertainment shows, when the curtains open behind him and out walk Hillary and Chelsea. Hillary had a great outfit on and she looked really, really good. Anyway, she told James that if anyone was going to do jokes about Trump, it should be her. So he turned over the stage to Hillary and Chelsea and they did stand up jokes about Trump that were funnier than I thought they'd be.

The segments will be on the Late Late Show's You Tube Channel by morning, so be sure to watch.

The Democratic debate has begun. I tuned in just in time to hear Kamala Harris say for the 100th time, "I'm a prosecutor".

Corey Booker looks really, really tired.

What are your expectations for tonight?

So Rudy told an Atlantic reporter he couldn't meet her because he was flying to Vienna -- this is one day after the indicted Giuliani associates tried to leave the U.S. but got arrested instead. They had one way tickets to Vienna.

Trump of course says he doesn't know the indicted pair. When shown pictures of him with them and Rudy, he says so what? I have pictures of me with everyone. [More...]