“Some brave patriots in intelligence and law enforcement and elsewhere in the federal government have taken risks to get the facts out.”
Thus quoth WashPost columnist Dana Milbank, celebrating the appointment of Robert Mueller as special prosecutor for l’affaire Russe. As Dana sums things up, a little too generously, “With the stroke of a pen, Rod Rosenstein redeemed his reputation, preserved the justice system, pulled American politics back from the brink — and, just possibly, saved the Republican Party and President Trump from themselves.”
I’d say Rod “salvaged” his reputation rather than redeemed it, for his earlier behavior was pretty goddamn awful, and we certainly have miles to go before we sleep, but we can hope that things will calm down a little in the near future. I would also give kudos to Dana for the hard knocks he deals out to those profiles in cowardice, Senate Majority Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan, along with the praise for those “brave patriots” mentioned in the first sentence. But while we need to remember that the Trump Administration really is a 24/7 horror show without precedent in American history, we should also remember that President Barack “Save the Children” Obama had a miserable record himself when it came to freedom of the press.
