UPDATED: A Reminder While We Wait
I don't normally offer links to the work of others unless I have something to add. This morning, however, while we wait for Thursday--and the promised release of the redacted Mueller report--Ed Rogers offers what I hope portends light at the end of the tunnel that is the Russia Hoax. And I can't do better than to quote from his relatively brief article. It's a warning to Democrats that they just may be about to get what they claim to have wished for.
Democrats have been forthright in their eagerness to get the full Mueller report. Those who propped up the collusion narrative are determined to do anything and everything to try to bend the report to their liking and count on their allies in the media to keep the collusion story alive. ...
The Democrats let everyone know that they were not finished with their quest for collusion, but to their surprise Barr let them know at a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing last week that he was just getting started. Specifically, he said, “I think spying on a political campaign is a big deal. ... I think spying did occur." Barr’s delivery was low-key, and his words were few, but you could hear jaws dropping all over Washington.
It deserves repeating: Even though Mueller is through, Barr is not. Almost instantly, Democrats attacked the attorney general. They are demanding that Barr retract his comments and not investigate spying on the Trump campaign. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) went so far as to say that Barr had gone "off the rails.” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) piled on, tweeting that “AG Barr must retract his statement immediately or produce specific evidence to back it up.”
Barr has assembled a team to study the “spying” that he says took place. Specifically, he will determine whether the spying was “adequately predicated.” This means asking who initiated the spying, how it was approved and what was done with the information that it produced. ... They will be the factual findings of an attorney general whose only mission is to go where the evidence leads him.
I have known Bill Barr for decades. He is the right man at the right time. He has been attorney general before — from 1991 to 1993 — and this is probably his last job. He does not need to posture or worry about his post-government career. He won’t be affected by the attacks from partisan Democrats who fear that his investigation may reveal misdeeds by some of their own. ...
If anyone needs convincing that this is necessary, recent revelations that confirm the partisan arbitrariness and disregard for decency that characterized the Mueller inquisition should suffice. That James Comey was regarded as a witness rather than a key subject speaks volumes, as do the revelations of how innocent people were bamboozled by Mueller's vicious partisans. Particularly bad news for the Dems is that the key House investigators are just as eager as the Dems claim to be to get their hands on all the details. That is a desire born of real confidence.
UPDATE: Here's an article that captures the Barr moment--for those of a certain age: Bill Barr’s Key Statement Was Overlooked: The Attorney General's reference to the Vietnam War period is central to today .
A most amazing thing. The Attorney General advises the Senate that he intends to look into whether government intelligence services improperly targeted a presidential candidate’s election campaign, and a Senator felt the need to ask him: “And can you share with us why you feel the need to do that?”
What a strange question for a senator to ask! As if the targeting of a presidential candidate by government services is an everyday and acceptable occurrence, not worthy of attention.
Then, in reply, Barr said something which has been little remarked upon, but which to me seems the essence of the Age. He said: “The generation I grew up in, which is the Vietnam War period, people were all concerned about spying on anti-war people and so forth by the government, and there were a lot of rules in place to make sure that there’s an adequate basis before our law enforcement agencies get involved in political surveillance.”
I am of the same generation as Barr, so for those readers too young to remember the old days, let me second his reminder.