Rosenstein replaced on probe
We fight with the tools we have, and those are the tools we have (or will once the new House is sworn in).
I am not saying that the eventuality of being overseen by a hostile AG was something Mueller did not plan for. I am saying that there is basically nothing he can do about it without breaking character as a by-the-book soldier.
As you say, Mueller is smart. He is working with smart people. But this isn’t twelve-dimensional chess. There is only so much you might plausibly do to prevent your boss from changing the scope of your work.
Is it that unlikely that he’s been sharing his progress with the NY AG office, or something similar to that?
Strikes me as quite unlikely, yes. He has been extremely careful to avoid leaks.
But preserving and disclosing what he has discovered strikes me as sort of a side dish. The most likely thing that will change is that he won’t be able to investigate further or indict anyone close to the President.
Mueller can tell Whittaker to fuck off and die. He isn’t in Mueller’s chain of command. Even an interim AG has to be approved by the Senate, and Whittaker hasn’t been.
Let the indictments flow freely!
Whitaker is the Acting AG. That’s the same role that Rosenstein had for the purposes of the Russia investigation.
There is an argument to be made that the Vacancy Act cannot constitutionally apply here. But it is a long-shot, IMO.
Followed by 15 guys with a bone saw.
I have been told over and over again that the investigation is being run by 17 angry Democrats. Perhaps one of them has a contingency plan in place.
Power, and the appearance of power. The Dems had neither, which by the principles of political perversity, makes it even more difficult to get any. People got used to thinking of them in terms of contempt, because all they could do was bitch about it. But of course! Therefore, it is even easier for them to believe that the whole thing is a hoax, cobbled together from fantasies of the powerless.
But they haven’t seen the evidence, none of us really have. At least some of the people who support Il Douche believe in their own patriotism. If Mueller has The Shit, they will change their minds. How many? Dunno.
But on the main point, Trump lost some power last night. In his position of improvisational mendacity, that’s bad. Being seen as losing power…is worse. Makes your allies nervous. Encourages your enemies.
Like me, for instance. I have an odd sensation in the center of my chest, kind of warm and glowy. Oh, wait, that’s hope! I remember now…
Goodness. :eek: If YOU are feeling hope, I must reexamine my despondency.
Hold off on that. He’s probably just having a heart attack.
“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
- “Chubby” Churchill, famous guy
Please note first that I’m not making any prognostication with this answer, but I think we could look a bit beyond the titular and explicit goals of an investigation & impeachment process.
The goal Republicans had with the endless Clinton (WJC and HRC inclusive) investigations was never an actual indictment and conviction - although, yes, they absolutely thought they had a chance to remove Bill Clinton from office. But they knew going in they were just fishing for anything to throw at Bill, and later they knew that all they had on Hillary was bullshit allegations unsupported by fact. The *effect *of the impeachment was to elect George W. Bush. The intent of the combined investigations into Benghazi and emails and the Clinton Foundation, and the endless insinuations of bad behavior was to tar the most prominent and effective Democrats and their Party with unsavory connotations of corruption and extremism. And it was damned effective electorally.
A Democratic House would indeed be crazy to think they could successfully remove Trump from office in a Senate trial. But that doesn’t make an impeachment politically foolish. In fact, one way of viewing that process is that the more intractable a Republican Senate in the face of relentlessly presented evidence against Trump and the most prominent members of his family and his administration and (even if only by association) his Party, the better electoral results for the Dems in 2020 and beyond.
That might be a wildly optimistic chain of political calculation, but it’s not pointless.
The flaw in your thinking and the reason the current sitch is NOT like the Clinton stuff is that thunp’s supporters LOVE his “bad behavior,” as well as his “unsavory connotations of corruption and extremism.” He will wind up being a martyr to his MAGAbots.
The flaw in your retort is that Trump’s supporters are not the whole of the electorate, nor are they the majority of the electorate.
But the insight of your retort is this: Republicans tend not to turn on obvious criminals as long as they’re part of the team; that’s why Devin Nunes and Duncan Hunter are returning to office. Democrats are, on the other hand, quite susceptible to hints and allegations, which is why so many self labeled ‘progressives’ swallowed every bit of propaganda about HRC. Democrats and Independents also switch allegiances based on decontextualized incidentals and the narratives pushed by their favorite talking heads.
So yes, there’s a danger that overly aggressive investigation and/or a poorly managed impeachment could merely strengthen right wing resolve without sufficiently turning the rest of the electorate against that wing. But it’s nowhere near the danger presented by failing to push back from a position of relative strength, which plays into the expectations of fecklessness many of those ‘progressives’ have for Dem leadership.
And finally, it’s impossible to imagine a political universe where valid and actionable evidence of Donald J. Trump’s criminality and unsuitability for the office would elude determined investigation and prosecution.
True, and I reallyreallyreally hope you’re right. There’s a lot of stupidity going around.
Ya know, it used to be impossible for me to imagine that. Sadly, that’s not the case anymore. I’ve seen a lot in the last couple of years that I never could have imagined in the past. 
Yeah, but sort of loses the poignancy with term limits.
NURSE! Quick, get the screens.
Isn’t that also what what John Hurt’s character said just before the infant xenomorph burst out of his chest?
LOL
Sessions threw away a secure Senate seat for this bullshit with Trump?
I guess *there’s a sucker is born every minute.
The good news is state marijuana laws are much more secure. That putz Sessions had been threatening a Fed crackdown. I hope the door doesn’t hit him on the way out. Good riddance.
*P. T. Barnum