Power Groping

Although I'm otherwise occupied, several readers have emailed me to urge that I comment on the current ridiculous kerfuffle involving the Celebrity Deathmatch between Mick Mulvaney and Leandra English over who lawfully acts as the "Acting Director" of the CFPB. My bottom line comment is that it's a useless sideshow. Eventually, Trump will appoint a director, and the Democrats don't have enough votes to block his or her confirmation. In the not-too-distant future, the new director will be able to undo any damage Ms. English might do in her brief tenure, should she win her legal battle with Mulvaney.

I do not think that she'll win that battle. I side with the analysis presented by Mayer Brown's Alan Pincus, and backed by the CFPB's own General Counsel, Mary McLeod. On the other side are folks like the noted legal scholar Maxine Waters, former Native American law professor Elizabeth Warren, and Harvard law professor and Barack Obama mentor Laurence Tribe, who once claimed that Neal Gorsuch's seat on the Supreme Court was stolen from Obama (which was educational for those of us who never realized that US presidents "owned" SCOTUS seats). Tribe lashed out at his idiotic opponents with his usual flair in The Washington Post (surprise!). Read the opposing views and decide for yourself which you find more persuasive. By the time you do so, the district court may have ruled and we'll have yet another wrinkle to iron out until the inevitable occurs, and Ms. English flies out the revolving door into the waiting arms of Big Law, Mulvaney goes back to his day job, and a permanent director moves in with, I hope, a flamethrower, a stash of M18 Claymore mines, and a list of names.

If they really wanted to settle this quickly, instead of taking the battle to court, they should have Indian leg-wrestled for the title. I think Leandra could have leg-whipped Mick into a vicious back-roll in less than three seconds flat. Trump could have promoted the living hell out of that match, with the proceeds going to a charity of the winner's choice (less Mulvaney's medical and rehabilitation expenses, of course).

Too many lawyers, not nearly enough time or ammunition.