Mueller Lays an Egg

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com


I watched almost all of the two House hearings today with Robert Mueller testifying. If you watch the talking heads of Fox, CNN and MSNBC, you might think they were all watching different hearings. Fox is calling it a huge Democrat thud while CNN and MSNBC are reduced to talking points and the fact that Mueller did not exonerate Trump-as if that has any legal meaning, which it doesn't.

Everybody is pretty unanimous that Mueller's appearance and performance was pathetic. I don't say this to condemn him; he has had a distinguished life and career. Most everyone agrees, however, that he did not acquit himself well today. He did not appear prepared or even well-acqauinted with his own report.

Mueller had always stated that he would not go beyond what was in his report, and he tried to stick to that, declining to answer many questions from both sides. "I can't get into that," was his standard response. (Often, he was justified in not answering certain questions, at other times, he refused to answer questions about points in his report.) He appeared, old, tired, and and times, confused and not up to speed on his own report. In short, the Democrats did not advance their case against Trump.

During the morning session with the House Judiciary Committee, Mueller appeared to confirm to Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) that he did not bring charges against Trump for obstruction because of the DOJ opinion  that a sitting president could not be charged with a crime. Then, in his opening statement to the Intelligence committee, he made a point to correct that and state that the decision not to charge was made independantly of that consideration.

Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH) made what appeared to be some good points concerning one Joseph Mifsud and his role in pumping Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos for information and then lying to the FBI. In March 2016, Mifsud, a Maltese academic, met Papadopoulos in London and told him that the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton. It was Papadopoulos' reported statements about that to an Australian diplomat a month later that launched an FBI probe that eventually resulted in Papadopoulos pleading guilty to lying to FBI agents. Jordan asked why Misfud was never charged with lying to the FBI while Papadopoulos and Michael Flynn were. Mueller would not answer.

The talking heads at CNN and MSNBC are making a big deal over the fact that Mueller did not exonerate Trump. The Republicans effectively brought out in the Judiciary hearing that it is not a prosecutor's job to exonerate. A failure to exonerate has no legal meaning because a prosecutor either charges or not. If no charges are brought, it is improper for a prosecutor to add that he or she was unable to exonerate. If you don't bring charges you say nothing. It is not Trump's or anybody else's burden to be exonerated of charges. In other words, innocent until proven guilty.

The mainstream media is also praising Mueller for strongly reaffirming that there was Russian meddling in our election, that it was not a hoax, and his investigation was not a witch hunt. I will agree with them and Mueller that the Russians did meddle; that was not a hoax. What was a hoax was the charge that Trump colluded with them. As for the witch hunt charge, that was not effectively refuted by Mueller today.

University of Michigan Professor Goes After....John McCain?

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com


Whatever disappointments I may have had with the late John McCain as a senator, I have always admired him as a great American, based mostly on his military record. Though I may have taken President Trump's side in policy disagreements he had with McCain, I have never cared for Trump's negative commonts about the late senator. John McCain is gone now, and I think on the whole, he served his country extraordinarily well. We should all let him rest in peace.

Unfortunately, University of Michigan comedian Juan Cole, who also carries the title of professor, seems to want to kick more dirt on McCain's grave. Rather than praise McCain for the classy way he ran his presidential campaign against Barack Obama, Cole goes to extreme lengths to try and detract from a positive moment McCain had during the campaign when he chastised a woman supporter who had called Obama an Arab. Apparently, Cole's stated purpose in attacking the late senator is due to praise McCain has received this week in contrast to the chants at a Trump rally in Greenville, NC when the crowd chanted, "Send her back", a reference to Somali-born Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-MN), a woman who has spent the past several months since  becoming a congresswoman making highly offensive comments about American Jews and America in general.

Here is a link to one of Cole's recent blurbs on his blog, which he entitles, Informed Comment:

https://www.juancole.com/2019/07/mccains-response-exemplary.html

To make his tortured point, Cole refers us back to an article he wrote in 2008:

 "Later, another supporter told McCain, “I don’t trust Obama…He’s an Arab.”

McCain stood shaking his head as she spoke, then quickly took the microphone from her.

“No, ma’am,” he said. “He’s a decent, family man, a citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with.” ‘

McCain should have said, “there would be nothing wrong with being an Arab, but Obama is not.” The way he put it strongly implied that he had a low opinion of Arabs."

Aside from grasping at straws, this is hardly fair. McCain found himself in an improvised moment when he had to correct what the woman was saying. Unlike Cole, he didn't have the luxury of formulating words that Cole would have suggested hours, days or weeks after the fact. And as for Cole's comment about "shedding his last vestiges of decency", as he terms it, McCain demonstrated much decency (and courage) over his life, more than Cole could ever dream about. What is Cole complaining about-that the McCain campaign did say negative things about candidate Obama and his association with Bill Ayers, an unrepentent (to this day) Weather Underground terrorist become college professor? That is what campaigns do. Cole explains it that Obama was just a boy when Ayers was bombing and hiding from the police. True enough, but Obama wasn't a boy when he "was in the same room" with Ayres (Cole's words-not mine). Obama was associating with a radical who had merely ceased breaking the law. Unfortunately, Obama's associations with people like Bill Ayres, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, and others was never fully investigated by the mainstream media. They simply chose not to. 

In addition, Cole proceeds to give us a lecture on what an Arab is and the fact that most Muslims in the world are not Arabs, not all Arabs are Muslims, etc. etc. etc. We don't need it, and furthermore, the crowd in Greenville said nothing about Arabs or Muslims. They voiced their disapproval of Omar for her litany of anti-Semitic, anti-American statements. Since Omar is an American citizen and cannot be deported, I personally would not have chanted, "Send her back". I have no problem, however, with Trump's invitation to her that she should return to her own crime-infested and dysfunctional community if she thinks we are so bad. (Whether that would be Somalia or the Little Moghadishu section of Minneapolis is not entirely clear from Trump's words, but no matter.) I personally would have no problem in telling her to her face that she should return to Somalia if she thinks so little of America.

Juan Cole is a leftist who is another one of those dime-a-dozen professors who hate Israel. He also has axes to grind against our own country, Republicans and conservatives while extolling the past and present glory of the Arab civilization (which is highly debatable). Such is his right, but it does not reflect well on him that he feels the need to drag the memory of Senator McCain through the mud.