The Mueller Debacle

The Mueller Debacle
The View from the Middle

I’m sitting here watching Robert Mueller testify in front of the House Judiciary Committee, and while I’m not sure what the media spin will be on his testimony, I can tell you what the story should be.

First, is Mueller a thousand years old or what. He has been mumbling and bumbling around for over two hours now and my only question is – does he have even a couple of marbles rolling around in his head anymore. His voice is shaking and he is asking almost every Congressman to repeat their questions. Does he need hearing aids or does he actually not understand these relatively simple questions that just refers to his own report?

Which brings us to what should be the second big story that should come out of this hearing. Did Mueller do any of this work at all? He spends most of his time looking through his own (supposedly) report for references or being assisted in that effort by his wing man, Aaron Zebley. He was asked directly, “how many of the 500 plus interviews done for this investigation did you attend.” His answer was, “Very few.” Wow! He was also trapped into admitting that he didn’t even prepare his own nine minute press conference speech that he delivered in May.

The questions on both sides of the aisle are not of any surprise. Democrats are trying, unsuccessfully, to get Mueller to indict the President during this hearing despite the fact that he didn’t do so in his 400+ page report. Republicans are trying to discredit Mueller, which, given the total lack of evidence of his mental acuity, seems to working better.

Mueller has been painted not only as a patriotic, hard-working and honest civil servant, but as an astute lawyer. To be honest, today Mueller has not given witness to any of these attributes, certain not the accusation of his sharp wit. He has been slow, unsteady and even incoherent today, and that should be the story.

Despite the spin that the media will try to put on this hearing, my guess is that this will have no impact on the positions of most Americans. If you thought Trump was guilty of conspiracy and obstruction of justice before this inquiry, you will probably maintain that position after it. If you thought this entire investigation was a hoax, you will probably still hold that position.

I do have one concern with the Democrat line of questioning is in this entire ordeal. They have talked much about Trump’s conversations with Don McGahn, where they talked about firing the Special Counsel or even where Trump might have told McGahn to fire him. The problem is, the Special Counsel was not ever fired, and other than not agreeing to a personal interview with the President, Mueller has already stated that he was not deprived of any access to people or documents by the White House. Is thinking about doing something now against the law. Watch out for the “Thought Police”.

The bottom line on what I will call the Mueller embarrassment campaign is that no minds will be changed, another day of legislative capability was wasted and our Congressmen showed themselves to be the partisan hacks we all suspected them to be. My hope is that they can now get back and do the work they should be doing to solve the crisis we are having on our southern border, do something to address our crumbling infrastructure and stop the toxic rhetoric that insults every American. But, unfortunately, that seems to be too much to ask.