For one short and shining moment, porn lawyer Michael Avenatti – the man who would brashly attempt to take on the leader of the free world – boldly crowed of a 2020 presidential run. For a brief period, Democrats went a bit more insane than just fantasizing about the possibility. Blue-voting Americans greedily wondered, “Can the slick one out-Trump Trump?”
In the past year, women have swooned over the preening peacock, and according to The New York Times Magazine, it might be for his “blatant blue eyes.” Odious advocacy media types, like randy goats, bleated at the prospect of a one on one interview, and subsequently, cream puff pieces popped up in major glossy publications that bespoke of the man’s stylish fashion choices and personal grooming routine.
His was a meteoric rise in becoming a household name, and Avenatti was flying high, a colorful, symmetrical, jaunty kite on an updraft of wind – until his tail tangled in the Party’s power lines, causing an unfortunate and unexpected plummet back to earth.
Well, it was unexpected for Avenatti. The Democratic Party – not so much. They didn’t take kindly to the attention the newcomer was being paid and, as the higher-ups are wont to do, they waited in the weeds for just the right moment to teach the new kid a lesson.
New Kid in Town
The once rising star who seemed to be the only mortal in the orbit of merging Trump scandals – the Stormy Daniels lawsuit, Michael Cohen’s Russian relationship, and Robert Mueller’s witch hunt – was like manna from Heaven to the left. He was large and in charge, appearing 147 times on the legacy media channels CNN and MSNBC over the course of ten weeks. It appears even Anderson Cooper was besotted with the man and had him across the desk on 20 separate occasions.
Avenatti’s unprecedented free publicity helped launch a crowdfunding source to pay for Daniels' many desired lawsuits. He was feeling his oats. How could it get any better for the modish attorney?
He found a bevy of women seeking him out for representation, alleging they were victims of the squeaky-clean, uber FBI vetted Supreme Court Nominee, Brett Kavanaugh. Enter Julie Swetnik, who accused the judge of heading a gang-rape club during his prep-school days.
Avenatti swelled like a peacock, basking in the glow of the media and #MeToo maneuvering with his new clients. Loafer-toed a line in the sand, he tweeting a Trump-esque challenge to the president, insinuating he was the bigger man on campus:
“I am excited to announce that I will be leading a large resistance rally in Texas at the exact same time of Trump’s (details tba). All groups are welcome to join. We must fight fire with fire and we must send a message that we will fight to make America America again.”
Ironically, that was the beginning of the end.
The Burn of Reentry
As Swetnick’s claims began to backfire, the embarrassed Democrats, who likely just wanted to put it all behind them after losing on the Kavanaugh issue, were quick to point to Mr. Full-of-Himself as the man who derailed the process.
The kindest rebuke came from Senator Gary Peters (D-MI), who dodged a direct answer by saying, “It turns it into a circus atmosphere and certainly that’s not where we should be.”
But those commenting under cover of anonymity were not as forgiving. One senior Senate aid cried foul, “Democrats and the country would have been better off if Mr. Avenatti spent his time on his Iowa vanity project rather than meddling in Supreme Court fights.”
The story became about Avenatti. The spectacular loss in the war against Kavanaugh was enough to send ripples of scorn through the party elite.
To add public insult to self-inflicted injury, Avenatti recently lost Stormy’s defamation case against Trump, and to the glee of Trump’s deplorables, was made to pay the president’s legal fees. And on the heels of that colossal embarrassment, this week, a California judge levied Avenatti with a $4.85 million judgment for failure to pay the debt owed to his former Newport Beach law partner.
The burn of reentry is a sufferance custom-designed to fit Avenatti – a man who it seems is channeling Icarus.
Oh, and remember that rally-off against President Trump in Texas? Yeah, that didn’t happen either.
Michael Avenatti is a lot of things – albeit mostly an egotistical megalomaniac with a dangerous bent of hubris – but now he can add extremely disappointing thorn in the side of the Democratic Party to the list. And they don’t forget or forgive the transgressions of an upstaging upstart.
In all probability, he will fade away with Dr. Christine Ford and Stormy Daniels, now that they have become expendable in the war on Trump.
The burn of reentry is a sufferance custom-designed to fit Avenatti – a man who it seems is channeling Icarus. A character too full of himself to heed the warnings of his elders while wearing wax wings and flying too close to the sun. The fall to earth is going to leave a stain.
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