Tag Archives: Mueller Report

Mueller Demythologized

By Robin Bates | Published: July 24, 2019

Thursday I’ve written a lot about people’s hopes in Robert Mueller, which helps explain the palpable disappointment in his performance yesterday before two Congressional committees. From one perspective, there’s no reason to feel let down. After all, his report exposed one of the great scandals in American history: our president welcomed and encouraged Russian election […]

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Robert Mueller as Jane Bennet?!

By Robin Bates | Published: May 30, 2019

Friday In The Maltese Falcon, Sam Spade explains to femme fatale Bridget O’Shaughnessy why he’s arresting her for the murder of Miles Archer, even though he’s madly in love with her. “When a man’s partner is killed,” he says, “he’s supposed to do something about it.” That’s essentially what Robert Mueller was telling Congress in […]

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GOP: Ignore the Trump behind the Screen

By Robin Bates | Published: May 7, 2019

Wednesday The GOP right now appears to be taking its cue from the Wizard of Oz. Pay no attention to what’s in the Mueller report, they tell us. It’s time to move on. Neither Donald Trump, Senate Judicial Committee Chair Lindsey Graham, nor Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell want Robert Mueller to testify before Congress […]

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Using Jane Austen to Dissect AG Barr

By Robin Bates | Published: May 1, 2019

Thursday The drama surrounding the Mueller Report continues to become more postmodern with every passing day. Or rather, the Trump administration has been trying to render it so. To highlight how Attorney General William Barr is throwing up smokescreens, I turn to my favorite passage from Sense and Sensibility. First, however, let’s note that the […]

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Barr’s Spin, a Restoration Comedy

By Robin Bates | Published: April 19, 2019

Friday I’ll write more extensively about the release of the Barr-redacted Mueller Report next week but a quick note here. When the Attorney General attempted to spin the report prior to its release, thereby functioning as the president’s press agent rather than the country’s chief law enforcement officer, I thought of Dr. Quack in William […]

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Following Barr Down the Rabbit Hole

By Robin Bates | Published: April 10, 2019

Thursday I haven’t quoted the Alice books for a while, even though in the past I have turned to them many times to capture America’s fractured politics. We are now so far down the rabbit hole, however, or so deep into the looking glass, that Lewis Carroll is must reading. On a general level, we […]

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Which Narrative Fits Mueller’s Report?

By Robin Bates | Published: March 24, 2019

Monday Two weeks ago I had an interesting interchange with reader Josh Grumet about which narrative would emerge once Robert Mueller submitted his report. While I said that liberals and NeverTrumpers were rooting for a Sherlock Holmes  ending, I feared we would end up with a Samuel Beckett non-conclusion. Josh, meanwhile, compared Trump supporters to […]

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