Democratic Panic

The dream machine is spinning furiously as the clock ticks on #ReleaseTheMemo. On Monday the House Intelligence Committee voted along party lines to release a secret memo written by committee staffers. The memo exposes FBI use of information from the dubious "Steele Dossier" to acquire a FISA wiretap warrant against a member of the Trump campaign. Eileen Sullivan explains in "Answers About the Secret Memo on the Trump-Russia Inquiry":

What does the memo say?

The memo, according to people who have seen it, is a short summary of some of the intelligence used to support a government request to secretly surveil Carter Page, the former Trump campaign associate.

In order to obtain the warrant, the F.B.I. and the Justice Department had to show a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge that they had probable cause to show that Mr. Page was acting as a Russian agent.

The memo’s main argument is that the government, in seeking the warrant, did not disclose that information in the application came from research paid for by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Mr. Trump has said that the Democrats’ financial ties to the research support his belief that the Democrats are behind the Russia controversy.

The man behind the research is a former British spy, Christopher Steele, who compiled a dossier of explosive, unsubstantiated information about Mr. Trump and Russia. He told the F.B.I. that he was working for interests opposed to Mr. Trump, and the Republicans question whether the intelligence court judge was misled about Mr. Steele’s credibility.

Some Republican lawmakers who have seen the memo have said it reveals that the F.B.I. was biased against Mr. Trump and misused its authorities in its investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election.

But that argument is undercut by another piece of information said to be in the committee memo: that the top official at the Justice Department who is overseeing the Russia investigation, Rod. J. Rosenstein, approved a government application to continue the surveillance of Mr. Page, which was originally approved in mid-October 2016. Mr. Rosenstein is a Republican and was appointed by Mr. Trump.

The highlighted portion is the source of worry for Democrats, #NeverTrump Republicans (who are once again mulling third-party challenge) and the furious spinning at The New York Times. Rosenstein is tainted. Rosenstein is in charge of special counsel Mueller. So if Rosenstein goes, Mueller can't be far behind. This is the long and short of Charlie Savage's "The Real Aim of the Secret Memo Is the Mueller Investigation."

Democrats have reason to be worried. No one, not even mainlining Rachel Maddowites, can coherently explain the Mueller investigation. It has something to do with Russian interference. When you ask, "Does that mean that Russia stole the election from Hillary?" They get defensive and respond, "Hillary won the election!," before accepting that, well, okay, Russia might not have been solely responsible for electing Trump.

So even partisan Democrats are confused, in denial. As for the general public, it has stopped paying attention to the Mueller investigation months ago.

Trump is about to rack up a big win in the info wars. The general public can understand a dirty-tricks campaign (Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky). People will comprehend, as many already do, that all this Russophobia is just politics as usual, standard partisan dirty tricks, and not high crimes and misdemeanors.