Yesterday's attempt by Robert Mueller to set things right right in a nice, orderly, legalistic manner after nine weeks of his good buddy William Barr doing everything he could to ratfuck the public understanding of Mueller's report was widely praised but it was disgustingly inadequate. I, to tell you the truth, found some of my worst fears about Mueller confirmed when he tried to exonerate the actions of Barr. Considering the renewed howling for Democrats in the House to open an impeachment hearing that Mueller's short speech set off, it's remarkable that he doesn't seem to see that his buddy Barr's actions are no less clearly deserving impeachment.
I heard Ari Melber with two former DoJ prosecutors who mildly criticized Mueller for his naivety which, considering how long Mueller was at the top of politically appointed positions IN LAW ENFORCEMENT!, I don't buy that for a second. His reluctance to face the facts about another highly placed Republican who he worked and played with for decades is not based in innocence, it's based in a double standard, perhaps one similar to the one that another in those circles practiced, James Comey during the election of 2016.
Mueller's reluctance to testify in public is not an act of integrity, it's an act of grotesque irresponsibility. Suddenly, when it comes to this, the most important thing he has done to defend democracy and the rule of law, a guy who has testified numerous times to get those jobs, to report on his work to Congress in line with the requirements of the offices he held, the granite monument of integrity gets shy about doing that?
As we are constantly told these days, as Mueller implied yesterday, impeachment is not a judicial but a political act. As Mueller pointed out in defense of his refusal to bring an indictment, the DoJ regulations takes the prosecution and removal of a president out of the hands of those in the judicial and legal arm of the government and places it exclusively in the hands of Congress, especially the House, where that would have to start. Though that fact from Mueller, himself, makes his reluctance to inform that political action publicly an act of monumental irresponsibility.
I think Mueller's insistence that he gave the Congress everything they needed and now it's all up to them is irresponsible, as well. Nancy Pelosi, Jerrold Nadler, Adam Schiff and others in the leadership of the Congress have watched Democrats lose control of the House and regain it, only to have that pissed away by first Bill Clinton to Newt Gingrich and then Barack Obama to Paul Ryan, only to be regained again. They know better than almost anyone else possibly could what is required, now to protect and defend American democracy.
THEY KNOW IN THE END THAT STOPPING THE DANGERS TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY THAT MUELLER PARTIALLY EXPOSED WILL REQUIRE HIM TELLING WHAT HE KNOWS NOT ONLY TO THE HOUSE BUT TO THE PEOPLE WHO ARE THE ULTIMATE JURY THAT HAS TO BE CONVINCED.
Perhaps Mueller needs to be taken down a peg or two, made to dismount his high horse or wised up or to face the fact that his friend, Barr, is a clear and present danger to democracy and the United States because he pursues a strong-man fascist view of the presidency. Maybe it's one of those things or maybe it's a combination of some or all of them. I can tell you that I've had about enough of the myth of Robert Mueller.
I know that whenever I say that someone says "but he's a Vietnam vet," generally a line that comes from people who I suspect have no one within their families or close associates who were. I've got several family members who were and all of them seem to understand this situation better than Mueller. None of them enjoyed careers like the one Mueller clearly has enjoyed having with the financial and social and public advantages he has had.
And I will repeat something I've been saying over and over again WHY ISN'T THE MEDIA PUTTING PRESSURE ON THE GODDAMNED REPUBLICAN SENATE TO DO WHAT THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO DO TO PROTECT THE UNITED STATES FROM ITS ENEMIES FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC. I'm getting sick and tired of even Rachel Maddow's mantra on that.
No comments:
Post a Comment