The whole saga of Michael Cohen’s testimony before Congress provides a fascinating look at the wonderful world of politics.  Back when Cohen was in President Donald Trump’s camp, the Republicans put a lot of credence in what he said and the Democrats said he was a sleazy lawyer and a liar.

Now the tables are turned and the Democrats hang on every word out of Cohen’s mouth and the Republicans say he is a sleazy lawyer and a known liar.

It is a fact that Cohen is a liar.  He’s going to prison in part for lying when he was under oath.

One thing is certain about liars, they lie.  Cohen, who is an attorney, knew the possible ramifications of lying under oath when he did it.  So we know that not only is he a liar, but he is so dishonest that he is willing to and has lied under oath knowing full well that he might be sent to prison for it. Nothing he says should be accepted as truth unless it can be independently verified.

The Democrats were right back when they said that he was a sleazy lawyer and a liar and the Republicans were wrong when they said he was simply a lawyer doing his job.

Trump should be embarrassed for ever hiring the guy, but he did and now he is paying the price.

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It seems that Trump doesn’t have the right to attorney-client privilege like the rest of Americans.  It’s not illegal for an attorney to abuse the attorney-client privilege, but attorneys can be disbarred for it.  Cohen has already been disbarred, and evidently he has no personal code of ethics.

He was Trump’s attorney, so there was certainly the assumption that the attorney-client privilege of confidentiality would be upheld, but it appears that the rules are different when the left is going after Trump.

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The saying in negotiations is – If you’re not willing to walk away from the table, you’re just begging.

A prime example of this was in the negotiations during the Obama Administration that resulted in an agreement with Iran.  Unfortunately for the US and the world, the Iranians discovered that then Secretary of State John Kerry was not willing to walk away from the table.  As a result the Iranians got much more than should have, including planeloads of cash in exchange for US hostages.

In Hanoi, Trump proved that he is willing to walk away from the table evidently North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un thought Trump wouldn’t. It appears, Kim assumed he could alter the previously agreed upon deal in his favor while at the table with Trump and that Trump would go for it because he would be too proud to leave the historic summit empty handed.

Kim is not likely to make that mistake again.  The negotiations with North Korea had been going on since the summit, last year in Singapore.  An agreement wasn’t expected out of that meeting.  It was more of a meet and greet.  The two heads of state got together in part because nobody thought they would and both like to astonish the world.

This meeting in Hanoi was different.  It was hoped that an agreement signed by both parties would be the result.  But Trump has been negotiating deals his entire adult life.  He knows when he is being sandbagged, so he cheated Kim out of a fancy lunch and one look at Kim is enough to tell you that the man likes his lunch.

Trump said he didn’t know when they would meet again, but it appears that Kim is interested in making a lot of money which means the US has to lift the sanctions.

The North Korean situation has been one of the most intractable for US presidents for decades.  Trump is the first president who seems to be making real progress.  Past presidents of both parties seemed to have the goal of appeasing North Korea long enough for them to get out of office.