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.