So maybe it is a bad idea to try to scapegoat Rod Rosenstein?
So maybe it is a bad idea to try to scapegoat Rod Rosenstein? I can only imagine the reaction in the WH to, in whatever form it took, the statement that 'in 30 minutes I am publicly naming a special counsel'. I know it didn't but I am wishing it included a postscript of 'have a nice trip' (trapped on Air Force One with your seething id of a boss). #schadenfreude
What are the odds that this will drag out for years and still not stop the painful slow drip of infuriating misery? Only the British did a more thorough job of leaving the WH a smoking ruin. Congrats, GOP.
What are the odds that this will drag out for years and still not stop the painful slow drip of infuriating misery? Only the British did a more thorough job of leaving the WH a smoking ruin. Congrats, GOP.
Bad idea for us the public to scapegoat him? Or for Trump to have scapegoated him?
ReplyDeleteTrump/WH to have tried to blame him for Comey's firing. I mean, obs there must have been something else that happened to tip him over the edge, but it seems more and more likely that the rumors of his threatening to walk were not just rumors.
ReplyDeleteI saw some one on Twitter mention that they really thought Wittes dragging him on lawfareblog had a real effect. I.e. the public opprobrium of respected professional peers is a real thing…
ReplyDeleteTh reason I asked is because there's a sense-- the one that Trent Goulding touches on-- that Rosenstein was also scapegoated by the media and the public by their (our) reaction.
ReplyDeleteAnd in that sense, I say: Good. It is perfectly appropriate to heap scorn on people who act as tools. It is perfectly appropriate for the media to explain, in detail, how stupid that was and how damaging to the country as well as to their own reputations. Even if they are in some sense unwitting, there are still expectations of basic competence at plat here. No one at that level can possibly be under any illusion about what was happening, there.
That said, appointing Mueller as a special counsel, and doing it the way he did (with the same turnabout-is-fair-play 30 minutes heads up and no consultation) is at least partly redeeming.