Reading the recently released transcript of the testimony of GPS Fusion principal Glenn Simpson to the House Intelligence Committee — I wrote about it in “The Simpson mania” — I was struck by Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff. Schiff was the perfect counterpart to Simpson. Like an-old fashioned analysand on the couch, Simpson wanted to free associate about Russia and Russians and Putin and loose threads in the collusion illusion that Simpson himself has fostered, and Schiff wanted nothing more than to sit at Simpson’s feet. The substance of the Steele/Fusion GPS dossier that has given rise to the hysteria in which we have been engulfed for the past year-plus all but disappeared in the haze.
In his weekly Wall Street Journal column Bill McGurn took up “The curious case of Adam Schiff” (behind the Journal’s paywall). Even without drawing on the transcript, McGurn observes: “Mr. Schiff appears to be the only man in America who doesn’t seem to want to know whether the material in the Steele dossier is true or not. All along he has stood against getting relevant information—fighting subpoenas for Justice, fighting subpoenas for the FBI, and fighting the subpoena for the bank records of Fusion GPS (which ultimately prompted the admission that the Clinton campaign had helped fund the Steele dossier).” Tucker Carlson had McGurn on his FOX News show to review his conclusions (video below).
Today Kim Strassel follows up in her weekly Journal column. She dubs Schiff’s current mission “Operation Sabotage the Memo” (behind the Journal paywall). With the help of key players in the Department of Justice, the Democrats have marshaled an impressive army for this particular operation. Kim treats Schiff’s caterwauling as a symptom: “Rep. Adam Schiff has many talents, though few compare to his ability to function as a human barometer of Democratic panic. The greater the level of Schiff hot, pressured air, the more trouble the party knows it’s in.” I think Kim’s take is overoptimistic, but we shall see.
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