Editorials

Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?
Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you…

At noon on Sunday, the eyes of many in this beleaguered nation were turned toward Washington, hoping that their hero would hit it out of the park with his expected report on the transgressions of Trump. Or perhaps Robert Mueller should be compared not to Joltin’ Joe but to a Greek hero, Hercules, whose seven labors looked a lot like the tasks allotted to Mueller.

Two of Mueller's jobs in particular were Herculean, comparable to cleaning the Augean Stables. In his short time in office, the Resident has produced more than enough—manure to keep the special counsel busy shoveling for two more years. But it looks like the effluent instead has been divvied up among several federal and state prosecutorial teams, which might be even better.

The Trump gang looks a lot like the Hydra, the many-headed monster that Hercules slayed in another of the seven labors. Let’s see, which heads have been cut off already? Manafort, Cohen, Gates, Flynn,Stone…the list is long and could be growing. Has the Mueller investigation found all of them, or will prosecutors in New York and Virginia come up with more?

But Mueller has disappointed those who expected that he would provide the solutions to everything that’s wrong with this country.

Jolting Joe has left and gone away…

The enormous expectations many of us had for this investigation resemble the hopes some had for Bernie Sanders in 2016 and continue to nurse for 2020. It’s not surprising that some Americans are still looking for a grandfather figure to step in and make everything all right. Both Mueller and Sanders are stern, serious Old White Guys, models of stability and rectitude, even though one is a life-long Republican and the other is a Socialist. But it’s not that simple. Grandpa to the Rescue hasn’t worked.

At the moment, the best hope for saving the world will instead be in the hands of grandmothers, Nancy Pelosi and Elizabeth Warren. The best script would have the House of Representatives taking up the shovel and uncovering even more dirt about the mess in Washington, but stopping just short of impeachment, which would only set up an unwinnable contest in the Republican Senate. A well-documented and publicized congressional exposé will make it easier for a strong woman to wield a new broom as a presidential candidate who promises to clean up the deep corruption which has been well-documented in the spin-off from the Special Counsel’s investigation.

And what are we to make of the Barr letter about the Mueller report? 

Spin. A press release purporting to be a summary, but actually a canny selection of the facts that fit, and no more. Hey, I’ve written advertising copy in my day, and it can always be the truth, just not the whole truth.

Congress can get the rest of the story, if they’re willing.