The Mueller investigation has ended, but our cultural obsession with the special counsel has not.
Since he began looking into alleged Trumpian collusion with Russia 22 months ago, Robert Mueller has become an icon of the #Resistance. Never mind that he’s a Republican and an appointee of former President George W. Bush. He was the Left’s best chance at ousting President Trump, and that gave him immense prestige.
Mueller merchandise has become its own genre of fashion, and shapes household goods. Etsy sells prayer candles emblazoned with his face, a halo surrounding his gray hair and saintly visage. For 10 bucks you can buy a key chain with his eyes looking eastward and the words “defender of democracy” below his profile. If that’s too kitschy for you, try a Mueller pin or a T-shirt.
Miller High Life drinkers may take offense at the appropriated phrase “It’s Mueller Time,” and some celebrities are more than a little obsessed with the special counsel.
Comedian Chelsea Handler tweeted March 22, after Mueller had completed his report but before Attorney General William Barr revealed that the special counsel had found no evidence of collusion, that she found Mueller attractive. (After she realized that he had shattered her dreams, she changed her mind, of course.)
Mueller, a veteran investigator and former FBI director, didn’t ask for his face to be plastered on T-shirts or for Handler to hang his poster over her bed. He was selected to investigate fanciful charges against a president that many people despise so much that it clouds their judgment. Because of what they expected him to find, they loved him.
He appears only in pictures — throughout the entire investigation, he never gave an interview — and his enigmatic silence allowed supporters to make him an icon.
Dog owner Alicia Barnett told the Associated Press that she even named her Labrador retriever Mueller because the special counsel gave her hope.
“He gives me reassurance that all is not lost,” she said. “I admire his mystique. I admire that I haven’t heard his voice. He is someone who can sift through all this mess and come up with a rationale that makes sense to everyone.”
But after St. Robert issued more than 2,800 subpoenas and still came up with no evidence of election interference from Trump or his team, the #Resistance can be expected to turn its back on its onetime friend. That’s a shame, if for no other reason than that it’s hard to train a dog to answer to a new name.
