National Opinions

The wrath of Omarosa

Omarosa Manigault Newman is as nationally famous today as that creepy porn lawyer what’s-his-name was just a few days ago.

President Donald Trump's former reality TV show villainess is hotter than a glass blower's furnace, so hot it hurts your face just to watch her speak.

She burns so bright that others are diminished. You can't even see the recently fired and disgraced FBI senior counterintelligence official Peter Strzok. Also left invisible is demoted Department of Justice lawyer Bruce Ohr, who'll testify soon before Congress about the infamous Steele dossier.

They are but tiny fireflies compared with Omarosa's media blaze.

And now it's all Omarosa all the time.

Trump hates her with Trumpian passion and idiotically calls her "that dog." And she hates him with Omarosian passion right back. He wants to wrestle in the mud, she'll oblige to sell her book full of deep thoughts. She knows how to fight him in the mud, the reality TV show way.

Journalists nod appreciatively at her words, though just a short time ago they treated Omarosa as Trump's foolish political window dressing, whom he hired at the White House after repeatedly firing her on his reality TV show "The Apprentice."

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They still think she's foolish, but they'll use her like an ice pick, like a hammer, and so now she's in constant demand on TV news, driving panel discussions, accusing Trump of using the N-word.

Proof? Is that important anymore?

With just two months before the midterm elections, Democrats need to drive their numbers up and take the House so that Nancy Pelosi can return to power and rule once again and impeach Trump. So it's the accusation that counts.

White House officials deny he'd say such a thing, but they can't guarantee there's no tape, somewhere, and thus the headline, "White House Press Secretary: Can't offer 'guarantee' there is no N-word recording."

And there we are. Who said politics ain't beanbag?

The economy is doing just fine, people are finally working, most don't care what Washington politicians do or say just as long as Washington politicians leave them alone, but Omarosa is the story now.

Meanwhile, disgraced FBI counterintelligence official Strzok -- who ran both the investigations of Hillary Clinton (protected) and Trump ("we'll stop him") -- is definitely not hot. Though he was fired just a few days ago for political bias in all matters Trump, Strzok is all but forgotten, as is his former girlfriend, FBI counsel Lisa Page.

Strzok and Page are like an old magazine cover about somebody called Brangelina.

And Ohr, the demoted Department of Justice lawyer scheduled to testify soon before Congress about whether he carried water for Clinton and Obama in their alleged behind-the-scenes war against Trump, isn't mentioned much either.

Ohr was the No. 4 at the Obama Justice Department. His wife, Nellie Ohr, worked for Fusion GPS, which was the oppo-research firm hired by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee to dig up sleaze on Trump. Fusion GPS hired Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence agent. Steele went to Russia and, with Russian help, put together the salacious Trump dossier that so far has been unproved.

Ohr carried that dossier to the FBI.

Both the Hillary Clinton and Trump campaigns were investigated the FBI and the Department of Justice in 2016.

"When it came to the Clinton campaign, she got a pass," former never-Trumper Sen. Lindsey Graham was quoted as saying the other day. "The criminal investigation of the Clinton campaign was a joke. When it came to the Trump campaign, it (the investigation) was biased and I think unethical. Mr. Ohr should not have had any role in investigating the Trump campaign because his wife worked at Fusion GPS. The FBI agent in charge of the Clinton investigation (Strozk) hated Trump, liked Clinton and also started the counterintelligence investigation against Trump."

But in media terms, Strozk and his fat GoFundMe account is fading. Ohr is a stone in a river. Who wants to talk about them when Omarosa is erupting?

Several top FBI officials involved in the Clinton and Trump investigations have either been fired or forced to resign. The FBI inspector general is preparing a report on how the FBI mishandled the Clinton email investigation. Congressional Republicans are itchy to get at Ohr.

Real questions are still unanswered. Is what we're seeing a crude pro-Trump political purge to damage the credibility of witnesses and to protect him from special counsel Robert Mueller? Or is America on the verge of understanding the so-called deep state and its intelligence community puppet masters?

Who gives two figs when we've got Omarosa?

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Trump and his White House are doing everything they can to make Omarosa a bigger story. Attacking her, calling her a "dog" is just pouring gasoline on the story.

Trump and his White House are trying to make her the evil one in all this, portraying her as ungrateful, a user. But really, it's all Trump's fault.

He's the one who hired her and fired her and hired her again on his reality TV show "The Apprentice." He's brought her to the White House. He's responsible for the people he hired at the White House, like the Mooch and his other broken toys.

So, this one's all on you Mr. Trump. You hired a reality-show villainess for your White House reality show. And now you're complaining?

What did you expect? The Bachelorette?

John Kass

John Kass is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune.

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