DAMNING WITH AIN’T PRAISE

 Favorinus about a.d. 110:

“it is more shameful to be praised faintly and coldly than to be censured violently.”

While the MSM and people associated with the FBI are trying to spin down the IG report, it is beyond devastating. This is easy to understand, even if you work for CNN. Just check out one of those AT&T commercials: “Just Ok is Not Ok.” Here, the IG did not report that things were OK at all. Instead it found very serious violation of procedure and major credibility errors. The only thing it did not determine was whether or not this rose to the level of criminality and the extent to which it was intentional. This would be the equivalent of a critique on a surgeon after a failed surgery. The operation review board showed major errors in judgement and procedures which were extremely damaging to the patient, but the concluded this didn’t rise to the level of malpractice. Good luck with that career. Here, the IG report was actually worse, in that it did find that the conduct rose to the level of malpractice, it was just not necessarily to the level of criminality.

Even the MSM has figured this out. They also know that William Barr’s analysis is spot on, and the next time we hear from John Durham he is probably going to be delivering indictments. It is particularly important to know that John Durham has a well-earned reputation for not saying anything. The fact that he was angry enough to publicly rebuke this report is like a bomb going off.

This is going to get worse, much worse. Horowitz is going to be testifying tomorrow and he is going to be asked some hard questions by some very capable Republicans. He will be dealing with more than Lindsey Graham; he will also have Chuck Grassley and John Cornyn. But it is worse than that, while the rest of the Republican Senators on this committee are all strong, two of them are in another league. Ted Cruz is considered to be one of the top constitutional attorneys in the country. Even Eric Holder said he would never question Ted Cruz with regard to his knowledge of the constitution. Mike Lee is also a highly respected constitutional attorney. It would not be a shock to see either or both of these men on the Supreme Court someday.

Democrats will be represented by Feinstein, Leahy, Durbin, Whitehouse, Klobuchar, Coons, Blumenthal, Hirono, Booker and Harris. Quite frankly the democrats put in a junior varsity squad to compete with a group of credentialed professionals. Unlike the Kavanaugh hearings, where Democrats could spin emotional arguments, Horowitz is a professional who will simply not play the game. They attack him to their own peril. Since Graham, not Schiff is in charges of the rules; the Republicans will get at least equal time. When you combine that with a lot of documented, inconvenient facts, this is likely to be very ugly.

Then, Trump will play his ace in the hole card, and unleash Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani says he has documented evidence of corruption in Ukraine. That is likely to include financial documents. Although the MSM is already trying to spin this as a bizarre conspiracy theory, Giuliani says he has the proof and based on his record as a U.S. Attorney, that should not be ignored. This is a classic case of follow the money and if Giuliani has obtained bank records that allow people to follow the money; this is going to blow up big time on Democrats.

It is always hard to predict rational behavior regarding those who have seldom demonstrated rational thinking in the past. But one has to wonder whether or not there are a significant number of Democrats who do recognize that this impeachment is a disaster. The hearing Monday where members of the committee literally resorted to asking leading questions of their own legal counsel was beyond bizarre. It was absurd. If they are smart, they will put through a motion to delay the impeachment vote until after Adam Schiff or Jerry Nadler schedules hearings that at least allow Republicans to call rebuttal witnesses. That would give them an excuse to stop this train from going completely off the tracks, without giving Trump an idiotic impeachment vote for a Christmas present. In my past experience, when politicians don’t know what to do they usually just kick the can further down the road.

In any event, the best description of that IG report is that it is damning everyone involved and it is not with faint praise, it is with zero praise. Like I said, damning with ain’t praise, which is ultimately as bad as it gets.

It is sometimes said that one should never assume malice where mere incompetence is a satisfactory explanation. But, in a case like this, this level of incompetence by people in these positions of authority may actually be the worst case scenario.

TDM