By Kevin D. Williamson
Thursday, April 18, 2019
Some of you will be familiar with a lefty, partisan
Democratic organization called MoveOn, formerly MoveOn.Org. It was founded
during an investigation into President Bill Clinton’s shenanigans (which were
not, Democratic mythology notwithstanding, strictly sexual in nature) and
argued that it was time for the country to “move on” from the Clinton scandals.
Congress disagreed, and impeached President Clinton.
The investigation into the Trump campaign’s relationships
with various foreign actors and into the president’s possible obstruction of
justice has come to a conclusion, and that conclusion is that there was no
criminal collusion and insufficient evidence to support an obstruction
prosecution. In a reasonable world, this would be the obvious time to move on.
Of course the Democrats believe, or want to believe, that there is unfinished
business here. Some Republicans do, too, and would like an investigation into
whether the investigation was improper and whether investigators acted
improperly.
It does not seem to me that the investigation was
entirely without basis, and it does seem that the reasonable conclusion here is
to concede that there was smoke (maybe just the smell of smoke) but no fire,
that some of Trump’s actions may have been unseemly but that there’s no law
against unseemliness — and that treating criticism of an investigation as potential
obstruction of justice comes queasily close to arguing that to defend one’s
self from an accusation is a confession of guilt.
The report pointedly suggests that if Congress believes
that there is more to be done in this matter, then Congress should do it. And
that’s right: This is now a political fight, not a question of criminal
justice, and it will be settled politically. The House can impeach. Or the
House can move on. Your call, Madame Speaker.
My own belief is that this was never about removing Trump
from office, though of course hamstringing him or humiliating him would have
been very satisfying to Democrats. This seems to me to be more about Democrats
continuing to tell themselves a comforting fairy tale about why they lost in
2016, and where they really stand politically. Getting cheated out of an
election hurts a lot less, psychologically, than getting beat fair and square
by Donald Trump — and it does not demand a lot in the way of reconfiguring
priorities or rethinking stances. Which is to say, the Democrats’ current
commitment to grasping at straws in this matter is, politically speaking, the
best news the Trump campaign has had in weeks, the report itself
notwithstanding.
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