And the beat goes on — or the beating up, I mean.
The dust hasn’t even settled on the 300-page Mueller report, a four-page summary of which was released last week by Attorney General William Barr when partisans on both sides — mostly in the dark about what Mueller actually found because the public has not yet been allowed to see what Mueller saw — started to attack.
That, unfortunately, will probably continue in the absence of facts, which is a main reason why, for the sake of good government and a saner public discourse, the attorney general should get the report out there. After all, Mueller is done, there are “no more indictments” and the country needs to move on in the light of day and for the sake of transparency.
Of course, the AG won’t listen to me or to reason. But he will listen to his boss, President Donald Trump, who says he wants the public to have the information. So we should assume that report we paid so much money, time and collective angst for these past two years should be forthcoming. I won’t hold my breath for the promised mid-April release.
Meantime, the knives are out at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. and in the Congress. And they are trying to slice and dice the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff of California. As an aside, when you listen to some of those clowns on that committee you begin to wonder why they use the word intelligence in their name. They ain’t fooling anyone.
What they are doing — the Republican committee members — is following lockstep with the president in his Twitter tirade against Schiff for having the temerity to get excited about the idea that anyone in or out of American government would have anything to do with the Russians interfering with the 2016 presidential election and, by extension, the 2018 midterms and upcoming 2020 presidential race.
This issue, like the Russian attempts to manipulate the gullible or unknowledgeable or unwitting voting public in this country, is not going away until we the people do something about it. And until there is a collective agreement that Russia is bad and our right to free and fair elections is sacrosanct, they will continue to manipulate, obfuscate and tweet their Russian ways into our American way of life.
There are some people in this country who may think that is OK. I don’t and on this one I believe the overwhelming majority of Americans agree with me. But, again, it matters not what I think because I don’t chair the House Intelligence Committee. Schiff does, which makes him the fellow standing between American voters and the Russian bear which is poised to have its way — again — in 2020.
I think Schiff’s words this past week are instructive because they synthesize the argument that all Americans should be making at this point in time. The Mueller report notwithstanding, there must be an understanding about whether or not we will tolerate outside interference in our elections. We must never tolerate any other country’s efforts to manipulate our elections — we are doing a fine job of that all by ourselves!
Schiff responded to his Republican colleagues who demanded he resign as committee chairman because he has been outspoken in his belief that the Trump administration colluded with the Russians.
Schiff said, “My colleagues might think it is OK that the Russians offered dirt on the Democratic candidate for president as part of what’s described as the Russian government’s efforts to help the Trump campaign. My colleagues might think it’s OK that when that was offered to the son of the president who had a pivotal role in the campaign, that the son did not call the FBI, he did not adamantly refuse foreign help — no, instead that son said he would ‘love’ the help with the Russians. You might think it was OK that he took that meeting. You might think it’s OK that Paul Manafort, the campaign chair, someone with great experience running campaigns, also took that meeting. You might think that it’s OK that the president’s son-in-law also took that’s meeting. You might think that it’s OK that they concealed it from the public. You might think that it’s OK that their only disappointment after that meeting was that the dirt they received on Hillary Clinton wasn’t better. You might think that’s OK. I don’t.
“You might think it’s OK that the president’s son-in-law sought to establish a secret back channel of communication with the Russians through a Russian diplomatic facility. I don’t think that’s OK. You might think it’s OK that an associate of the president made direct contact with the GRU through Guccifer 2.0 and WikiLeaks. You might think it’s OK that a senior campaign official was instructed to reach that associate and find out what that hostile intelligence agency had to say, in terms of dirt on his opponent. You might think it’s OK that the national security adviser-designate secretly conferred with a Russian ambassador about undermining U.S. sanctions, and you might think it’s OK he lied about it to the FBI. You might say that’s all OK, that that’s just what you need to do to win. But I don’t think it’s OK.
“I think it’s immoral. I think it’s unethical. I think it’s unpatriotic and, yes, i think it’s corrupt, and evidence of collusion.
“I do not think that conduct, criminal or not, is OK. The day we do think it’s OK is the day we will look back and say that is the day America lost its way.”
I agree with Adam Schiff. I suppose that means the Republicans would never want me to be the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. We all know that would never happen anyway.
But, America losing its way?
That could happen. That is happening as we speak. Or, should I say, as Trump tweets and the House GOP chorus sings along.
And, all the while, Russia takes great delight.
Brian Greenspun is editor, publisher and owner of the Sun