From Michael Cohen's first appearance on the national stage, acting like a dopey mook with his infamous "says who?" remark, he has basically been an object of ridicule. He was public face of what kind of mobbed up losers who glom on to doughfacedonny's scabby wings looked like. A wannabe bully with no power of his own who folded under challenge, what often doesn't make it into the meme is when he meekly said "okay" when told all the polls said his hero was losing, Cohen has kind of been that guy we all love to hate.
It was so satisfying to hear of Cohen's arrest, and more so when he initially seemed defiant in the face of actual criminal charges. This is really hard to admit, but I'm kind of softening on Cohen now that he has faced the music. It's pathetic but strangely endearing to see a career wannabe fixer fall so far. Endearing because he's trying so hard to get a measure of revenge on the bigger bad guy. I don't want Cohen in a foxhole with me, but he let loose an awesome barrage on the enemy trenches. The enemy of my enemy is not automatically my friend, but he can draw fire. Even doughfacedonny's farcical trip to Vietnam to kowtow in front of another dictator couldn't completely divert attention from the shitshow in the House of Representatives.
What Cohen did there, and what his republican inquisitors did in questioning him, is quite remarkable. He used the word "regret" and "ashamed" in his opening statement, and bared his soul to the whole world that he was wrong to be loyal to such a monster. Yes, he knew what he was doing during his tenure as inept fixer to the king of sleaze. He is paying for it, he will keep paying for it, everyone now knows exactly what he did and it will follow him for the rest of his life. That was quite an act of contrition, one that to my knowledge has never been equaled by any of the criminals close to power in the last half century. Whether it was sincere and the apologies were honest I cannot say, but Michael Cohen has taken a step towards the light. He will never make it all the way, but if this testimony shortens the tenure of doughfacedonny and the republican crime syndicate by one day it will have made a difference.
I'm not here to praise Cohen, he's still a slimy little toady. From his own opening statement he admits being a borne follower, awed into submission by a conman. He allowed his loyalty to fall exclusively to doughfacedonny, away from the law he must have at least mouthed devotion to to be admitted to the bar. He chose loyalty to a con man in spite of common sense, and committed acts both criminal and unethical in that con man's name. While we liberals knew all along what batshit crazy bullies the republicans are, Cohen thought it was cool to transfer the wannabe gangster act to politics.
He could have just kept his mouth shut, accepted his sentence, and tried to rebuild his life after getting out of prison. Presumably no one would remember who he was or what he did, maybe he couldn't go back to lawyering or fixing doughfacedonny's many crimes, but Cohen could have probably lived a quiet life out of the limelight after doing his time. The republicans went out of their way to claim he was doing this for a book deal after prison. Logically, that doesn't hold a lot of water. Sure one book deal might be lucrative, but would it really be worth it to throw away everything else to maybe get one book published? Given our country's attention span (as an historian, I am as frustrated as anyone that things from last year just register blank stares from the general public) is one book about the last republican scandal really going to fly off the shelves or come with a lucrative speaking circuit? No, the relentless blasting about book deals made about as much sense as continuously drawing attention back to Cohen's lies. He lied and committed these crimes in service to their leader, their president. In any sane universe with laws of political gravity, this tactic would backfire. But we don't live in a place where those things matter.
So, still a bad guy but Cohen made moves to rehabilitate his soul. Sincere remorse and acceptance of punishment for crimes he confessed to. It's a step in the right direction. Maybe he had a conscience after all, it was just suppressed while in thrall to doughfacedonny. And if this two bit hoodlum can feel pangs of guilt after the spell broke, maybe other republican hoodlums can too.
