For a knowledgeable viewer watching the first Robert Mueller hearing in the House Judiciary Committee, the biggest impression is of the utter contemptibility of the performances of almost every committee member.
Again, this is an overall, impressionistic judgment, not a close parsing of individual exchanges between the members and the former special counsel. Not a single congressperson, in any memorable way, departed one iota from the partisan script line. Not a single one showed any dispassionate judgment or willingness to be a neutral arbiter.
Instead, all of them acted in the likeness of a hired hand, either a prosecutor or a defense attorney, rather than as a juror analyzing evidence, much less as an elected House member whose real job is neither to protect nor harm the president but to protect the U.S. electoral and judicial system from abuse.
In short, every member seemed to think the job description is choosing either pro-Trump or anti-Trump sides, rather than serving the broader public weal and the dictates of the Constitution.
The Democrats never should have demanded that Robert Mueller testify. He made it abundantly clear that the official special counsel report speaks for itself and that he would not go beyond its bounds. Yes, the Democrats had plenty of excellent points to make about particular findings in that report that have not fully registered with, or not been amply enough highlighted for, the general public. Still, they could have made those points in legitimate hearings without dragging Mueller in. They wanted a show. They created a hyperpartisan spectacle.
Republicans were even worse — far worse. At least a number of Democrats carefully highlighted parts of Mueller’s report that merited elucidation. Every single Republican acted as if the report were an entirely illegitimate exercise and as if the president were their client. Forget the congressional job of oversight of the executive.
This was lickspittle toadyism at its worst.
Does not a single one of those Republicans care about the vast degree of Russia’s attempts to undermine a U.S. election? Is none of them bothered by Trump’s obvious attempts to impede a valid national security-related investigation (even if those attempts to impede may not have risen to the level of impeachable “obstruction”)? Is no Republican bothered by the Trump team’s documented interest in receiving assistance from Russians with Kremlin ties, even if none engaged in a criminal conspiracy?
To repeat, their job is not to protect Trump. Their job is to protect our republic. Republicans contradicted their own name by leaving our small-‘r’ republican systems undefended. This is a dereliction of duty. This is worse than shameful. This is grossly, despicably, willfully irresponsible.
To his credit, Mueller repeatedly has emphasized that among “a number of challenges to our democracy” that he has confronted during his distinguished career, “the Russian government’s effort to interfere in our election is among the most serious.”
By not taking it the slightest bit seriously, Judiciary Committee Republicans pushed political hackishness to new, dangerous depths.
