Once again, impeachment fever has gripped Democrats on Capitol Hill as special counsel Robert Mueller will testify about what’s in his 450-page report on Russian collusion as well as various and sundry “related matters.”
Of course, there’s no earthly reason for Mueller to testify. Everything he uncovered is in that report. But I guess Democrats have trouble reading past a 5th grade level so we will be treated to Mueller patiently trying to explain to Congress that no, there was no collusion by the Trump campaign with Russia and the case for obstruction of justice against Trump is weak and probably not makeable.
But Democrats are ever hopeful that impeachment is “right around the corner.” They know it. They feel it. They smell it. They dream it. By god, they know that pony is in that pile of dung, if only they dig deep enough.
Or maybe it’s just wishful thinking?
But for all the anticipation, for all the fighting that it took to get to this day, many in Washington assume it will be more fizzle than sizzle. Mr. Mueller, the famously stoic prosecutor and reluctant witness, has vowed to adhere strictly to the words of his 448-page report and no more, making it unlikely that he will serve as the dramatic accuser Mr. Trump’s critics yearn to see.
“I don’t have high expectations for any additional substantive appreciation of Mr. Mueller’s investigation,” said former Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota, who was the Democratic leader during the Senate impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton in 1999. “I think he’s going to stick to the script, and the Justice Department has told him to stick to the script, so I think it will be difficult for him to provide any more information.”
The hearing has all the makings of a Hollywood klunker, a “snooze-fest” says the Washington Post. But Democrats are expecting their fairy godmother to make an appearance and grant them their fondest wish; that voters will give a crap about their delusions.
When asked if Mueller’s testimony was a crossroads in the impeachment debate, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told POLITICO: “It could be.”
“It’s like John Dean’s testimony,” he said of the White House counsel under President Richard Nixon who blew the Watergate investigation wide open. “It came up that there was a recording — but nobody knew that was going to happen before the hearing.”
Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.), who has recently come out in favor of starting the process to impeach, said Mueller’s testimony is the “turning point that we know we have right in front of us.”
“The fact that it’ll be Mueller himself, in his own words, contextualized by the questions that are being asked, it could move some members that had been leaning toward impeachment.”
It should be noted that the existence of a White House taping system was revealed by Nixon aide Alexander Butterfield some weeks after Dean testified. But history is a frangible subject for Democrats and as long as Hoyer was in the ballpark, who cares right? Close enough for government work.
More to the point is Kildee’s delusion about why the stoic, stone-faced presence of Robert Mueller will be a “turning point.” Mueller is not going to reveal anything that remotely resembles a “bombshell.” It’s all there in his report. The actual “turning point” was the day the report was released and it was revealed that there wasn’t any collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians.
Yes, but the opportunity to emote, to express outrage, to hammer Trump — all on national television with a gazillion people watching — is just too good to pass up. The hearing will feed Democratic delusions about impeachment, keeping hope alive that somewhere, somehow, someway, the dream of watching the president do the perp walk into the hoosegow will become a reality.
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