Where we are now

Collusion hysteria has bedeviled the Trump administration since day 1, precisely as intended. It has brought us the Special Counsel to provide the predicate for the removal of Trump from office. It has produced absurdity upon absurdity delivered by such artists of the calculated lie and the straight face as Adam Schiff. All the while, the mainstream media have made themselves instrumental to the production by serving as the faithful public relations adjunct of the Democratic Party. They are part of the scandal.

There are approximately two observers who have substantially contributed to our understanding of where we are at each step along the way. Andrew McCarthy is one. In his current NRO column he takes a look at the Grassley/Graham memo that we posted (in the “less redacted” form) here and observes: “In a word, the Grassley-Graham memo is shocking. Yet, the press barely notices. Rest assured: If a Republican administration had used unverifiable hearsay from a patently suspect agent of the Republican presidential candidate to gull the FISA court into granting a warrant to spy on an associate of the Democratic nominee’s campaign, it would be covered as the greatest political scandal in a half-century. Instead, it was the other way around….” Oh, yeah.

This isn’t exactly a quotable quote, but the point needs making and Andrew McCarthy makes it: “We need full disclosure — the warrants, the applications, the court proceedings. No more games.” And McCarthy is particularly strong in the linked column on the derelictions of the mainstream media. “No more games” applies to the press too, but that is concededly utopian. This is a devastating column. Please read the whole thing.

Lee Smith is another essential observer. His Tablet columns have added depth and dimension to our understanding. In this week’s column, Lee scrutinizes the public comments of former CIA Director John Brennan and connects a few dots. He finds Brennan to be the protagonist if not the man behind the curtain pulling the strings in the production. Brennan is a man with a plan and an an…imus.

Reminder: Brennan is the first CIA Director in history to have voted for the Communist Party candidate for president (in the 1976 election).

I should add that Victor Davis Hanson has made himself a beacon of light piercing the fog. His most recent column is “FISAgate is scarier than Watergate.”

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