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President Donald Trumps excellent overseas adventure continued on Tuesday, with the leader of the free world leavinga high school yearbook-style noteat Israels Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem, complete with adorable exclamation point using a circle instead of a period. (He would have used a heart but he was trying to be dignified.) But the days big news happened back in Washington.

Former CIA chief John Brennantestified before Congressand further confirmed that the entire intelligence communitys hair had been on fire since last summer over the Russian connection. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats also testified and refused to deny reports that the president had called him up and asked him to declare Trumps innocence. Most observers think that if it didnt happen, Coats would have felt free to say so.

And the administration finally released its budget, which immediatelyblew up like the Hindenburg(asI predicted.) Even conservatives were a little shocked at the sheer scope of the barbarity and callousness. Its architect, Office of Management and Budget director Mick Mulvaney, seemed to be struggling to repress maniacal laughter, but thats about all we heard from anyone in the administration. Naturally, House Speaker Paul Ryan said it was right on target further cementing his growing reputation as theworlds greatest suck-up.

The biggest news is that somebody finally convinced Trump that he is in need of outside legal counsel, aside from Rudy Giuliani and Judge Jeanine Pirro. One might have thought it would be wise to select someone with Washington experience who understands both the legal and political aspects of presidential scandals, but thats not how Trump works.According to Politicohe has hired his own longtime lawyer, Marc Kasowitz, rather than someone who might not understand that Trump only wants to hear what he wants to hear. (An added bonus is thatKasowitz also represents Russias largest bank,so he knows the terrain.)

The administration seems to understand that it should create a war room in order to concentrate the scandal management in one place instead of sucking in everyone in the White House at each new turn. But if anyone in the GOP hierarchy thought Trump might be getting serious about hiring some professionals to handle that, they should probably think again. Apparently Trump plans to house this operation outside the White House andaccording to Politicohe wants to bring back original campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, along with deputy campaign manager David Bossie, to run it.

Its not unusual when an administration finds itself becoming engulfed in controversy to bring in someone to help put out the flames. Usually the person is someone with management experience and a sterling reputation, who is respected by both sides of he aisle and beloved by the mainstream media. The point is to show that the White House is serious about fixing he problem, even if they havent got a clue about how to do that. Think of David Gergen beingcalled into the Clinton administrationin the early days or former Sen. Howard Baker duringthe waning days of the Reagan administration, as thsse presidents confronted consuming scandals. Lewandowski and Bossie are not in the same category.

According to CNN, despite the fact that even Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump dont like him, Lewandowski still has the presidents trust. Hes a thuggish sort best remembered forroughing up protestersandassaulting reporters,so that makes sense. Lewandowski was finally let go after losing a power struggle with short-lived second campaign manager Paul Manafort, who is now very much in the doghouse over his obvious ties to Russia. Obviously Trump remembers those early days of the campaign as his glory days, and thinks Lewandowski has a special talent that can help him weather the storms. But Lewandowski is a D.C. novice whocouldnt even get his attempt to cash in as a lobbyist off the ground. Its unlikely he has the skills required to deal with something as serious as this Russia investigation.

Bossie, on the other hand, is a long time GOP insider who hasa couple of decades of experienceworking more or less behind the scenes both for his own oppo organization Citizens United (yes,thatCitizens United) as a congressional investigator and a producer of conservative propaganda films.

How that experience translates into crisis management for Trump is a little obscure. Bossie is obviously savvy about how to pump up a scandal so perhaps the idea is that he will know how to take the air out of one as well, but in this case thats a tall order. More likely hes going to be tasked with distraction and deflection.

Bossie built his reputation and his career as a professional Clinton character assassin and hes done well at it. He was undoubtedly very useful to Trump at helping him identify various buttons to push. One can see the echoes of his work (and, for all we know, its direct application) in the latest phony Clinton conspiracy,the ongoing Seth Rich saga, which has the right-wing media in a full-blown frenzy. Although Fox News has now retracted its original story on Richs murder, both Newt Gingrich and Sean Hannity are still hysterically flogging this outrageous conspiracy theory. It has all the hallmarks of a Bossie-style hit althoughthe inane Pizzagate conspiracyspreadby the likes of former national security adviser Michael Flynnproves that his dirty tricks can be done just as well by amateurs.

Hannity has said he believes the Rich story exonerates Trump because it suggests that it wasnt the Russians who hacked the Democratic National Committee. (The fact that the Democrats congressional campaign and Clinton campaign chair John Podesta were also hacked is just left dangling out there.) So one can see the outlines of a desperate attempt to prove Trumps innocence. It certainly seems like something Trump would define as crisis management.

Its predictable enough that the hardcore Republican base would swallow this hook, line and sinker.It always have before. But this wont help with the wider public any better now than it did during the first go-round with the Clintons in the 1990s. And back then Republicans largely had the mainstream media on their side, eager for any juicy morsel of gossip about the Clintons. If Hillary Clinton were president, there can be no doubt the media would be right there begging for whatever Bossie and his ilk could feed them. But Trump is in the White House and there is no faux-Clinton scandal on earth that can beat the lunacy that comes out of the White House and this presidents mouth every single day.

Trumps overlapping scandals are as far-reaching and outrageous as the Republicans always tried to portray the Clinton scandals to be. Bossies tawdry character assassinations are revealed for the cheap stunts they are in comparison to the real thing.

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Donald Trump must be getting desperate: Does he really think thuggish Corey Lewandowski can save him? - Salon