It's Mueller Time, Con't

As I said yesterday, the Nunes memo was a massive dud to the point where the GOP can't possibly use it for cover for Trump to fire special counsel Robert Mueller or his boss Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who is overseeing the Trump/Russia investigation as Attorney General Jeff Sessions has recused himself.

That's not going to stop the Trump regime and the GOP from trying to salvage their attack, and Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass gives away the game this weekend as to where the GOP will now be parking the Mueller firing goalposts.

What we’re looking at is politics.

It was politics when the political left loved WikiLeaks boss Julian Assange, back when he released sensitive information, even though it undercut American foreign policy. He was a hero then. But he was hated later, when his work involved Democratic National Committee emails. Then Republicans loved him.

Republicans were once adamantly in support of the FBI, the CIA and some of the other shadowy agencies with great powers to watch us and to monitor our phones, to listen to what we say in the interests of security and to ignore or avoid the Fourth Amendment. And Democrats were once adamantly opposed to even suspected abuses by federal police and the intelligence agencies — what is now called “the Deep State” — and they railed against those who’d step on American civil liberties in a political hunt.

But now, Democrats are the champions of shadow warriors in the CIA and the FBI, arguing that we must not challenge these agencies at the risk of national security. And Republicans hammer at the FBI — whose leadership they once respected — including former FBI director Robert Mueller.

Now that he’s special prosecutor investigating Trump, his final report could provide a political basis for Democrats to impeach Trump, should they gain control of Congress in the 2018 midterm elections.

So we’re in the Upside Down now. You see how this goes. You can see where it’s going.

The best thing to do in this business of the president and the investigation and the memo is to have everything released, all the information, and hope that the American people actually care enough about their country to read it, rather than accept the spin by some that it’s a nothing burger, and the spin by others that it’s a book of revelations.

Americans should read the Republican memo, and also read the complete rebuttal from the Democrats that is sure to come.

And also read the Department of Justice Inspector General’s report that is being compiled about this matter, and is reportedly digging into any FBI political bias in favor of Hillary Clinton when she was under investigation for tens of thousands of emails, some classified, on her private server.

What would be best is if we could all read the FBI’s FISA application used against Trump, which Republicans allege was based on opposition research done for the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

If this is, in fact, true, then it is an outrage and an assault on our freedom. If it is not, we best know it quickly.

Getting all this out in the open is preferable to relying on whispers and leaks from shielded investigators to political hacks.

And while the partisans are either pro-Trump or anti-Trump, there’s something else that may be even more important.

It’s the argument — once offered by big-government Republicans and now cleaved to by big-government Democrats — that we shouldn’t challenge the huge federal bureaucracies that spy on us, and watch us.

The only branch of our government to have proper oversight is Congress. And the only real answer is sunshine, so we may see to make up our own minds about how our country is governed.

Kass neatly lines up where the GOP is going:

1. Trump should somehow declassify information crucial to the ongoing investigation of Trump himself, a novel approach that assumes somehow the GOP is smart enough to obfuscate the "mysterious sausage-making process" without actually giving away the dirt on Trump.  This will never happen, but Republicans will say that Trump's refusal to do this is proof the FBI is corrupt.  Or something.
2. Same goes with the FISA process, which after renewing said process only a few weeks ago as part of the regular renewal of Patriot Act surveillance legislation, suddenly now the GOP objects to it. Or something.
3. Also the only branch that matters isn't actually Trump but Congress, which the GOP controls totally, so do we really need Mueller at all when we have the House and Senate investigations which as sure to be fair and impartial? Or something.

Anyway, this is how the rest of the Mueller investigation will play out.  He's not going anywhere, but if the GOP can shout loudly enough that HEY THIS IS NOT BEING DONE OUT IN THE OPEN AND PUBLIC WHERE WE CAN SEE IT like all criminal investigations are never, ever done even then Mueller will be...discredited...somehow...look I don't know, I didn't say it was a good plan, I said this is where they are going with it, and let's face it these guys are terrible at this whole nonsense.

I mean...look at Carter Page.

Former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page referred to himself as an “advisor to the staff of the Kremlin” in a 2013 letter to an academic publisher, Time reported Saturday.

The publication reported that it had obtained the 2013 letter sent during a dispute about edits on a manuscript Page had written. 

“Over the past half year, I have had the privilege to serve as an informal advisor to the staff of the Kremlin in preparation for their Presidency of the G-20 Summit next month, where energy issues will be a prominent point on the agenda,” Page wrote, according to Time.

Come on.