The Great Memo War of 2018

What a surprise. The Memo has been released. On the 24 hour, You should excuse the expression, news programs are solemnly taking their sides to attack or defend the relevancy importance and accuracy of the Memo. If these people didn't take themselves so seriously it would be extremely humorous to listen to the banal and predictable comments. The Republican argument as I best understand it is that the infamous Steele Dossier was partially financed by the Democrats and portions of it were referred to in one of the four FISA warrant applications and the court was not apprised of the financing and therefore that proceeding was tainted and therefore the FBI is corrupt as well as the justice department and therefore Rosenstein and Mueller need to be fired and therefore the whole investigation needs to be deep sixed. The Democrats position is that as I understand it is that the investigation into Carter had begun long before the Steele Dossier,  much more evidence submitted to the FISA court than the Republicans acknowledge or discuss and that the democratic financing of Steele is of questionable relevance at best and that there is plenty of the other evidence to cause the investigation to go forward.

These arguments are totally irrelevant. This is not an intellectual problem. The Republicans and Democrats are engaged in an adversarial combat rather like a trial with each side devising the best arguments they can. Of course, the rules about admissibility of evidence are not at play. All the Republicans need to do is create enough controversy to allow the administration and the house to end the investigation by firing Rosenstein and Mueller and be able to get away with it leaving Trump and his administration intact. I have to say they're off to a pretty good start. It is easy as an intellectual matter to totally dismiss these latest republican arguments but so what? It is extremely difficult to win a contest against an opponent that will not follow the rules. It's like playing tennis against an opponent who calls every shot" Out". I probably suffer from confirmation bias but it seems to me obvious that the Trump administration and the Republicans in the house are totally unprincipled and don't give a damn about normal rules. It's about winning which is of course Trump's pervasive metaphor. The Democrats appear to be trying to play by the rules and not release their memo without permission from House Republicans and the president and of course most of what would support their position is secret and classified and can't be used.

So, it is hard to be optimistic if you are of my persuasion. Meanwhile that huge airplane flies back-and-forth from Washington D&C to mal de mer so that the fat slob who occupies the White House can play golf which is probably his highest and best use.