The snow is finally falling here in Muscovy, and the holidays must be fast approaching because all the car commericals on television are written by and for 5-year-olds. Seriously: whoever it was at Honda who greenlit the use of Michael Bolton singing heavy metal Christmas clichés needs, by order of the Czar, to be an assistant manager at Applebee’s by six tonight.

But snow is not all that falls: the Czar has received a lot of really good letters, emails, scrivenings, epistolaries, and jottings of late that have kept him warm and interested in your continued survival. You know, in addition to letters we reprint here, we get stuff from time to time of a more personal nature. Those emails are very nice to receive and make us quite happy.

Also, Island Dweller throws his usual dispatch over the wall.

A major television news outlet has just announced John Podesta, former WH Chief of Staff under Bill Clinton, will be returning to the White House staff as a senior advisor to that staff on matters of climate and energy.

Let’s face it, those two issues rank somewhere between secondary and tertiary to Dear Leader and his staff right now. A former chief of staff, accustomed to authority and immediate obedience from underlings, as a mere chair at a table? It’s highly likely Mr. Podesta was brought into the mix more to lend a hand to the curtailment of the sophomoric antics of the White House staff and its hangers-on than to advise on energy and climate issues. This man is an outsider who held a highly-responsible position under a president whose spouse was up against DL as a candidate at one time, and with whom he has reportedly had very serious disagreements prior to her departure. He is an “outsider” in another sense in that he is not one of those people with whom DL surrounded himself on the campaign trail, and in his first term in office. There is an excellent chance there are more than a few hard feelings in the White House over this appointment, because there were undoubtedly many others leaning far more to the left than Mr. Podesta DL’s supporters feel should have been brought in instead.

His arrival also coincides with the departure of several members of the staff in the recent past.

One has as a mental corollary to Mr. Podesta’s arrival at the White House in the familiar sequence within “Animal House” of Dean Wormer slinking into Delta House and laying down the law to the inmates. I don’t think the staff’s response to his arrival may be as glib and flip as some of the Deltas’ were to the Dean’s pronouncements.

I understand from the news reports Mr. Podesta is quite fond of roller coasters as a diversion. I hope so. It’s possible he’s going to be boarding one for an occupation rather than a pastime.

ID

Climate change is dead as a popular issue: the American public is tired of it, and regurgitation of the same studies finds its way deeper and deeper in the news coverage, somewhere between Amazing Pee-Wee Football Play and Whoa, What Got Into This Backyard Animal?

Podesta’s role at any such committee is symbolic to the point of being useless. So as a result, one begins to suspect he is a double-agent.

Think about this: the Obama perpetual campaign needs to show the Democrats, who still worship any Clintonia they can, that Barack Obama is not so polarizing and far Left that he cannot build a coalition. Democrats were so awfully humiliated in the 1980s that Clinton, some 12 years after Carter, was seen as a redemption. When Horndog was in power, cash was rolling in and no one asked too many questions. The Obama circle wants to show it isn’t just some choom gang hanging out in the White House kitchen eating all the Doritos. So Podesta is a sign that We Can Still Work With You Guys.

Meanwhile, if you were Hillary Clinton, you would be itching to know what the Obama campaign will do to sabotage her presidential run. No kidding: Obama destroyed her in 2008 and she never forgot it. She went from being She Who Must Be Obeyed down to a disregarded Secretary of State in the blink of a political eye. And knowing that Obama is looking to build his own power base in Washington after he leaves—a Biden presidential run being a predictably stupid move—the Obama circle will be sure to sabotage her again in 2016. And they will have a lot more ammunition this time around. Want to see how we go from “I ain’t in no ways tarred” to ”Hey, hey, HRC; where were you during Benghazi?”

At that, Podesta is a man loyal to Big Bill Clinton, and would be a perfect candidate to whisper into Secretary Clinton’s ear. Two things are certain: the Obama camp is brutal and merciless; it is also quite stupid. Podesta could easily serve on a committee to ameliorate any overt action against Clinton, and also pass on any covert plans of attack foolishly blurted out in an East Wing breakroom.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.