Sometimes Pandering to the Boss Can Bite Ya

Kellyanne Conway had become so accustomed to defending Donald Trump's ridiculous statements that she got a little too comfy tailoring her message to an audience of one (her mercurial boss). The president may be able to say virtually anything because the constitution assumes we'll never have one who can't be handled by the separation of powers. But it turns out, there are actually some lines that cannot be crossed by his staffers, and Kellyanne crossed one of them yesterday when she boldly told people to buy Ivanka Trump's products...from the White House briefing room.

Whoops.

That's against the law.

There was a rare sniff of contrition when Sean Spicer discussed it in his briefing yesterday ("she's been counseled"), and a rare hint of whoopsie-daisy when Kellyanne was interviewed again later that night by Fox News (she didn't double-down for the first time ever). That should tell you something.

They know she stepped in it this time.

Even the Republican chair of the Congressional Oversight Committee, which has refused to investigate the potential Russian hacking of the election, realized he had to do something. He sent a stern letter to the White House.