So did you ever watch the Seinfeld episode in which George Costanza lies to Susan’s parents, the Rosses, about owning a house in the Hamptons?
Wacky hijinks ensue when Susan’s parents, who suspect that George is lying, insist that he show them the house. Rather than simply owning up to his fib, George takes them on the two-hour drive to the Hamptons. As they depart for his doom, George quotes Michael Keaton’s Batman character: “You wanna get nuts? Let’s get nuts!!!” All the while as they drive George is wishing and hoping and thinking and praying and dreaming that they will ask him to turn around before his lie is revealed.
They do not.
Which brings us to Sean Spicer. In his Thursday press conference Spicer quoted allegations made originally on Fox News as evidence (or “evidence”) that, well, there is evidence (or “evidence”) for Trump’s claims that Obama had ordered wiretapping of Trump Towers. The twist in this allegation is that it claims Obama did a runaround of U.S. intelligence agencies and sought out the UK intelligence agency GCHQ to do his dirty work.
Not surprisingly, GCHQ adamantly denied this allegation and apparently expressed their concerns to the Trump administration.
Somewhat surprisingly, the Trump administration appeased the UK by agreeing not to make the allegation again. However, somewhat bizarrely, Sean Spicer denied having any regrets about using the false information and upsetting one of our most important allies, saying that if reporters have a problem with the story they ought to take their grievances to Fox News—a claim President Trump repeated later.
I retract that. In the Twilight Zone that is our political order today virtually nothing is really surprising.
By the way, at the end of the Seinfeld episode George had no choice but to admit that he had lied. It is yet to be determined whether George Costanza’s ethics are a bridge too far for this administration.
