| | | | What Roger Stone doesn't get |  | | Roger Stone's hero is Richard Nixon. He has a shrine of Nixon memorabilia in his house. He's fond of flashing Nixon's victory sign -- at the most inappropriate moments.
Nixon viewed everything -- EVERYTHING -- as a political campaign to either win or lose. With the entire world divided between his opponents and his allies. And because of that worldview, Nixon believed anything was justifiable under the banner of winning. The ends always justified the means.
Which brings me to Stone's Instagram post earlier this week, in which he put what looked like a gun's crosshairs next to a photo of Amy Berman Jackson, the federal judge overseeing his charges of lying to Justice Department investigators about contacts with WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaign. That same post accused special counsel Robert Mueller of being a "Deep State hitman" and suggested that the proceeding was a "show trial" because Jackson was appointed by then-President Barack Obama, a Democrat.
That's right out of the Dirty Politics 101 handbook. Savage your opponents. Raise questions about their motives. Attack, attack, attack.
What Stone doesn't get -- and what Nixon never got either -- is that he isn't running a political campaign anymore. He's in the legal fight of his life. And the rules of the law are a lot different than the rules of politics. (The rules of politics are, generally speaking, that there are no rules.)
Stone has survived -- and at times prospered -- by his willingness to go lower than any one else in the political world. To pull tricks, or try to pull tricks, that other people would dismiss as too sleazy or too dangerous.
Stunts like, say, posting an image of someone with crosshairs next to it, then removing the image, then apologizing for posting it -- all the while knowing that you got the image out there into the public consciousness, so mission accomplished.
Jackson nodded to Stone's dirty trickster reputation in court on Thursday. "Roger Stone fully understands the power of words and the power of symbols," she said. "There's nothing ambiguous about crosshairs."
Then she placed a full gag order on Stone -- meaning he cannot speak publicly about the case at all. Because in the legal world, actions have consequences.
The Point: Stone, like many of the Trump-adjacent figures who have been caught up in the Russia investigation, seems to be treating this all as just one big public relations campaign that he needs to win. Thursday's ruling throws a bunch of cold water right in his face on that line of thinking.
-- Chris | | "It's become clear to me that the public's confidence in the 9th District seat general election has been undermined to an extent that a new election is warranted."
-- Mark Harris, the Republican leading in the contested NC-09 race, backing a new election for the House seat. The North Carolina Board of Elections voted to re-do the election (the first time that's happened in 40 years). | | |  | Why 2020 will be harder for Bernie Sanders | | Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, a breakout star of the 2016 election, is running for president again in 2020. But a crowded field of well-known, left-leaning presidential candidates may make his path harder this time.
One easy thing for you: Subscribe to The Point on YouTube! | | | I've been getting into Mountain Man's music lately. (It's three women in the band. IRONY!). Their cover of "Love Hurts." Whoa boy. | |  | | Today's topic: The important lesson we can all learn from Roger Stone. | | Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is passing on a potential Senate bid in Kansas in 2020.
Pompeo said this morning that a run is "ruled out." The State Department head plans to serve as secretary of state "as long as President Trump gives me the chance to serve as a senior diplomat."
Pompeo added: "I'm here. I'm loving it."
Pompeo, a former Kansas congressman, was reportedly being recruited to run for retiring Republican Sen. Pat Roberts' seat. | | Larry Hogan: The Maryland governor is raising Republican eyebrows with a trip to New Hampshire on the docket sometime this spring. Bill Weld might not pose the only primary challenge to Donald Trump, after all...
Bernie Sanders: The independent senator plans to sign an affirmation that he will run and serve as a Democrat in the 2020 cycle. This is important because Sanders ran in the Democratic primary in three Senate campaigns only to turn down the party's nomination and win the Senate seat as an independent.
Julián Castro: Is making his first Iowa appearance as a declared presidential candidate. He'll be in the Hawkeye state for three days.
Jay Inslee: The Washington governor considering a presidential run is being backed by a new super PAC run by former Democratic Governors Association political director Corey Platt. | | Did you spot someone you recognized courtside at last night's Duke-UNC game?
It was none other than former President Barack Obama -- captured in the background of a courtside interview reacting to the fact that Zion Williamson's "shoe broke." | |  | | From Brenna: "Sen. Kamala Harris pulled a Leslie Knope and had some waffles for lunch, complete with a healthy pour of syrup. Al Sharpton was there too, eating toast, which is less fun. Share The Point with your brunch buddy!" | | | | | | |
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