The Russia Mess: The House Intelligence Committee voted to release a classified memo critical of the FBI’s handling of the Russia investigation only hours after the #2 man in the agency was forced out.

It’s a clear signal that there’s an open partisan battle over the Russia investigation, with Republicans and the President trying to cripple it. President Trump has up to five days to approve release of the secret memo.

Adding to the stew, President Trump yesterday declined to impose new sanctions on Russia ordered up by Congress. The administration said just the threat is enough.

  The House memo, dubbed the “Nunes Memo’ after the committee chairman Devin Nunes, is purported to detail abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in obtaining information about the Trump campaign and contacts with Russians. At the same time, the Republican majority on the committee voted against releasing a counter-memo written by the Democrats.

Some Republicans have pushed to release the currently secret memo in an effort to cast doubt on the motives for the Russia election-influencing investigation. Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the committee, has said the memo skews the intelligence it’s based on for partisan political reasons.

Over in the Senate, Virginia Democrat Mark Warner told Politico that, “We’ve had new information that raises more questions” about the Trump campaign’s possible collusion with Russians. Warner called the information “very significant” and warned against “Trump zealots” in the House trying to undermine the legitimacy of the special counsel’s investigation.

The departure of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is not directly related, but it’s about the same thing: Republican pushback against the FBI in the midst of the Russia investigation. McCabe had already planned to retire because of the heat he was taking from Trump, but The NY Times reports that he was pressured to leave by Director Christopher Wray.

Wray hinted in a memo that an Inspector General’s report is critical of McCabe.

McCabe, who’s been a target of President Trump since the election campaign, is leaving the bureau earlier than his planned retirement in March. His departure appears to complete a house cleaning of top bureau managers associated with fired director James Comey. McCabe was the acting director after Comey left.

Trump repeatedly attacked McCabe because his wife had accepted campaign contributions from the political action committee of Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a close Hillary Clinton ally, during a failed run for the state senate. There’s no law or rule that the spouse of an FBI agent can’t run for public office or accept money from legitimate sources.

The State of Affairs: President Trump delivers his first State of the Union address tonight in a test of whether he can stick to the traditional format of listing the nation’s challenges without pandering to his ardent admirers or attacking his perceived enemies. He may arrive at the podium with a standard speech, but as always with Trump, there’s no guarantee he will stick to it.

As of this morning, Trump is expected to call on Congress to spend at least $1 trillion to rebuild bridges, highways, sewers, and airports. He is expected to pitch his plan to curb legal immigration while offering a path to citizenship for $1.8 million illegal immigrants who fit the description of “Dreamers,” immigrants brought to the US illegally when they were children. The cost in trade; $25 billion for the President’s promised border wall and additional border security.

He can be expected to declare that the US is much better off with him as President, and of course, make a play for national unity.

Jonathan Capehart writes in The Washington Post, “Trump very well may read every well-crafted word that scrolls on the teleprompter like a novice ice skater clings to the rink’s wall. And he’ll expect us all to applaud if he doesn’t go splat on national television. But Trump will deserve none of the plaudits. The expected words of unity will ring as hollow as the morally bankrupt man uttering them.”

Jonathan Horn, a speechwriter for President George W. Bush, told the NY Times that Trump might even deliver a good speech, only to torpedo it with a tweet. Horn said, “The next day there could be a tweet, and then the work on a very, very long speech is overshadowed by 280 characters.”

Police Blotter: A Toronto landscaper has been accused of killing five men and burying their remains in planters where he worked. Bruce McArthur, 66, had ties to a neighborhood called Gay Village, where some of the victims had lived. The cops say there may be more victims and they are digging into planters at 30 locations where McArthur worked.

A Small Screen: Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has signed to be an occasional contributor to ABC News, proving Matt Drudge’s theory that it doesn’t matter what you do, so long as you are famous for it.

Late Retirement: The Cleveland Indians announced that they are removing their “Chief Wahoo” Indian logo from the team uniforms starting in 2019. The logo is a cartoonish Indian with a big nose, toothy smile, and a single feather sticking up from the back of his head. Indian names and logos for sports teams have been criticized as racist in recent years.

If they just changed their logo to a congressman with a feather in his hair no one would object.

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