Margot Excoriates Barr/Durham, Plus Two More Good Reads
I’ll place the two other good reads first, without commentary. They’re both good discussions of important topics.
First up is Jonathan Turley:
Was Overturning Roe a “Blessing”? Only if Democrats Can Avoid the Details of the Right to Abortion
It’s the Dems who are telling themselves that overturning Roe was a “blessing” because they think it gave them a game changing electoral issue. Turley takes issue and provides an excellent discussion of the politics of abortion, more so than his usual legal approach.
Next is a warning for Trump supporters. What would a second Trump presidency actually look like, given Trump’s easy-going attitude toward people who betray him (as long as they don’t attack him publicly)?
A poisonous confluence has emerged in Washington, D.C., where the waters of the swamp converge with the promise of “America First.”
On July 26, Donald Trump headlined the America First Agenda Summit, hosted by the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), the nonprofit known in Trump world as “the White House in waiting.” The event—not coincidentally—followed a story in Axios about AFPI’s supposed part in a plan for purging “potentially thousands of civil servants and filling career posts with loyalists to [Trump] and his ‘America First’ ideology” if he were to be reelected. The news was met with understandable fanfare on the right and apoplexy on the left.
But there is just one small problem: AFPI is the swamp; it is an organization that is run, staffed, and affiliated with the worst people from the Trump White House, who systematically undermined the America First mandate and who promoted the interests of the establishment during Trump’s presidency. The summit provided a snapshot of this problem.
Under the title is a photo of Jared Kushner, which should tell you a lot. However, the author names names—Larry Kudlow is one—of those who undermined Trump and now want power back.
On to Margot Cleveland’s extended takedown of Bluto Barr and Bull Durham. The article is detailed and I won’t attempt to get into the weeds. The title tells the story:
Special Counsel Durham’s Protect-The-Establishment Approach Is Destroying The Country
That’s pitching it pretty strong, but I think Cleveland’s concern is totally warranted. The reason the article is as long as it is, is that Cleveland summarizes Barr/Durham’s good intentions when they took on the job of cleansing the Augean stables. They thought they could do the job by simply providing a good example of impartial justice, and the stablehands would be so impressed that they would do the cleansing job on their own initiative. That’s not what the Left is about, and how they could have been so deluded is the real question. And yet I accept that Cleveland is right about this. Barr has even joined the blame-Trump crowd, apparently still believing that the Left can be appeased and/or that the “moderate” GOP or the DC Establishment will somehow grow backbones.
The concluding paragraphs will give you a flavor for the overall tone:
When Barr joined the Trump administration as AG in 2019, his apparent approach to righting the DOJ and FBI appeared eminently reasonable: Expose and remove those engaged in misconduct; reestablish the criminal process as sacrosanct, ensuring there is no political interference; and prove to the public, political appointees, and career employees that the DOJ will not be “used as a political football” by exercising prosecutorial discretion cautiously and by sparingly resorting to the criminal process to obtain justice. Durham’s similar approach to probing Crossfire Hurricane and Mueller’s investigation likewise rested within the realm of “reasonableness.”
Was that approach eminently reasonable? Only if the exposure and removal process was undertaken ruthlessly. It wasn’t. Only a ruthless application of justice and transparency fit the bill, given the ruthless intent an end justifies the means character of today’s Left. The fact that this approach was not seriously undertaken explains, to me, why Cleveland is compelled to state that we can now see that Barr/Durham were foolhardy:
But what was judicious nearly three and a half years ago proves foolhardy today because Barr and Durham’s discretion taught the left only one lesson: There will be no consequences to those who abuse the justice system to attack conservatives.
While it may be too late now to reverse course, with the statute of limitations likely expired on several of the crimes, if Durham is debating a broader conspiracy charge, prudence now compels a course change with every plausible charge filed against everyone complicit in the hoax and investigation. Nothing less will save the DOJ and FBI — and our country.
That’s not going to happen, as things now stand. However, you can follow the link and read Cleveland’s bill of particulars against Barr/Durham.
The AFPI is a heavy-handed joke. I mean, really? How about the "Antic Farcical Political Interlopers"? Does anybody ANYWHERE actually believe that Miss Lindsey Graham is America First? And what if they ARE able to pull off the subterfuge? To me it would just mean that at my advanced age I could finally hang up my cleats and maybe check out just what is so addictive about heroin.
As regards Barr/Durham: obviously neither man was capable of internalizing that Holder / Obama had completely corrupted the DoJ-FBI, turning them into weapons of war. And then they declared war on Trump and the GOP in general. Is it plausible that Barr had no idea what kind of rot had infected the two organizations a few levels below him? I doubt it. My (un-educated) guess is that when he realized just how FUBAR they were he decided that he wanted to collect his book deal millions and live out his life in peace.
So...”From my perspective,” Barr added, “the idea of resisting a democratically elected president and basically throwing everything at him and, you know, really changing the norms on the grounds that we have to stop this president, that is where the shredding of our norms and our institutions is occurring.” So, seeing that our “country was headed toward a constitutional crisis,” and that the Russiagate narrative was “being used to cripple his administration and drive him from office,” Barr accepted the position, believing the president.”
Fine, Barr. Then why has all of it been swept under the rug? Barr was all, “There’s treason afoot.” But now it’s “He has no right to complain.”
None of this makes sense unless you go full conspiracy and make the bottom line assumption that bigger forces are at play. I.e., it’s not just the FBI or CIA, or Biden or Putin. Then again, the thing that really bothers me is lack of motive. I’ve heard it said the people driving this want power or money. But everything being done is destructive. When everything is destroyed, money means nothing. And power? Over what remnants? It makes no sense.