Forget what I said in the last post about Avenatti being a flash in the pan. Now that I’ve read this, I see that the writers of the virtual reality which we now collectively inhabit are obviously gearing up for an unlikely alliance between him and Michael Cohen that culminates in an Avenatti/Cohen ticket in 2020.

Cohen could still be VP even if he’s a federal inmate on Election Day, couldn’t he?

He recently changed his party registration to Democrat and apparently exchanged pleasantries with Stormy Daniels when they ran into each other at an airport. I feel like there’s a nonzero chance we’ll see a political event before the midterms featuring her, Avenatti, and a repentant Cohen, never mind that they’re still opposing parties in the lawsuit over her hush-money agreement.

Michael Cohen, the President’s former lawyer, is prepared to campaign against Trump and Republicans in the midterm elections and the 2020 presidential race, a Democrat with knowledge told CNN. Marking the latest escalation in Cohen’s growing animosity towards Trump, the source said he is open to doing a range of things to try to help the Democratic Party, including stumping for candidates, giving speeches and helping raise money.

Notably, Cohen, who according to his lawyer changed his party registration to Democrat last week, would call out and refute anything that he considers to be lies from Trump, this person said. (As of Tuesday morning, the New York State Board of Elections website still listed Cohen as a Republican.)…

There are only three weeks left until the midterm elections and Cohen is expected to get some jail time soon after. His ability to hit the campaign trail is also physically constrained: US District Judge William Pauley has limited Cohen’s travels to parts of New York City, Washington, Florida and Illinois as he awaits his sentencing.

No doubt lots of Democratic candidates are eager to have as their surrogate a newly minted federal convict who until five minutes ago was Trump’s sleazy enforcer-in-chief. What does that part about “refuting Trump’s lies” mean, though? Is he going to show up to a rally and spill the beans about Russiagate onstage? He could do that now in an interview if his goal really is to help Democrats before the midterms. His actual goal here, I assume, is to put the word out as colorfully as he can that he’s in the market for new friends now that all of his old ones hate him for turning on POTUS. Obviously he’s not going back to the Trump Organization once he’s out of prison. It’s never too soon to start ingratiating yourself to a new tribe and the employment opportunities they might provide later by offering to make yourself useful for them.

Besides, they can’t afford to be picky about who campaigns for them. Certain high-profile members of the party have largely taken a pass on the midterms this year:

Barack Obama’s involvement in the 2018 cycle was always bound to be limited. The former president has stressed his desire for the future generation of Democratic leaders to step up, along with a reverence for norms dictating that ex-presidents should not criticize current ones. But with fear growing within the party that they may not win back either chamber of Congress, even members of Obama’s alumni network are beginning to question whether the detachment is strategic at all…

“Why isn’t he out there saying, you know what, I put [Merrick] Garland out there and they politically stopped it from happening. He should just state it,” said [Luis] Gutiérrez. “There is nobody more powerful than him.”…

Even those deeply complimentary of the former president tacitly acknowledge his tendency to stay maddeningly above the fray. One former Obama official flagged for the Daily Beast a Facebook Post recently put up by the ex-president in which he recommended books and articles to read. One of the most liked responses to the post, the official noted, was a woman replying: “Right now I’m busy knocking on doors and making phone calls to help a local candidate. After that, I may have time to read.”

Gotta look at it from O’s standpoint, though. He presided over two of the most ferocious midterm beatings sustained by his party in modern American history. His reemergence on the trail would probably turn out more Republicans to vote against him than Democrats to vote with him. There’s a reason why he hasn’t endorsed Beto O’Rourke in Texas and why O’Rourke hasn’t asked for his endorsement. Both of them know that would do more for Cruz in Texas than it would for Beto. Obama’s view of November seems to be, quite understandably, that the best thing he could do for his party is avoid the cameras down the home stretch and let sleeping dogs lie on the right.

I’d love to see him and Cohen at the same rally, though. It’d be the political equivalent of “Spinal Tap and Puppet Show.”

Here’s Stormy reflecting on her chance encounter with the Democrats’ newest political star. Exit quotation from a Cohen friend, speaking to Vanity Fair: “What you see now is a return to who he was before all of this. He’s an open book, and he’s adamant to make it right.”