Posted on 01/09/2020 6:17:32 AM PST by Kaslin
Washington -- Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley A. Strassel has just conferred her "Adult of the Year Award" on a man who deserves it, Attorney General William Barr. And Strassel writes with sufficient distance from the swamp to be taken seriously. Her column, titled "Potomac Watch," is, I am told, composed from her lair in Alaska. That ought to insulate her from the swamp's fumes, and from Wall Street's, too.
Moreover, though the attorney general has been a presence in Washington for years, he is not simply a Washington creature. He is his own man. A few months back, when it fell to me to introduce him at a professional dinner, I made bold to say, "I hope I am not mispronouncing your last name, General Barr. The accent is on the first syllable, is it not?" He, in a very good-natured way, assured me that it was. You must remember that I am a stickler for pronunciation, and the attorney general has a well-developed sense of the absurd.
Strassel, in her award-conferring column, noted that upon being nominated for attorney general by President Donald Trump in December of 2018, "he received the respect he deserves." Official Washington was quick to note Barr's years of nonpartisan facility with the law, observable in years spent at the Justice Department, in the CIA and in private practice. He was known as a serious student of the law and of the Constitution. All agreed he would not be anyone's toady.
Yet Strassel notes that his honeymoon is over. He has begun to be "vilified precisely because he has maintained an impartial view of the Justice Department and has kept his promises." This demonstrated integrity by the attorney general has "commenced one of the more obvious, not to mention nasty, delegitimization campaigns in modern Beltway history." Official Washington has been yapping at the attorney general's appointment of John Durham -- a prosecutor of squeaky-clean reputation -- to investigate the FBI's probe into the 2016 Trump campaign. It became "hysterical" when the attorney general stated "his own view" that Inspector General Michael Horowitz's December report confirmed that, as Barr put it, the FBI suspicions about the 2016 campaign were "insufficient to justify the steps taken" by the country's top cops.
The campaign against him continues. Former FBI Director William Webster has joined the attack, and Eric Holder, perhaps the most partisan attorney general ever, has, too. All the high-minded talk of Barr's early days in office has been forgotten. Who else will come forward? Perhaps Pope Francis?
Few people in the country today have demonstrated deeper insight into Spygate, the investigation into those who have been investigating the elected president of the United States, than Kimberley Strassel. In her column I detected a genuine note of alarm. Is it possible that the investigation of the investigators could be brought to an end? Could the media render Barr or Durham suspect? Will they uncover an incriminating telephone call? How long can the Democrat-controlled House mire these men in one of their investigations? Is it possible that the whole finely tuned investigation overseen by the attorney general will come to a grinding halt because of Democratic subterfuge?
Well, I do not think it is likely, but it is possible.
As Strassel writes, the evidence against the FBI has steadily accumulated. Recall, if you will, the inspector general's December report. If Americans are ever going to be able to see what happened in 2016 with the FBI and with other intelligence agencies, the work of Durham and Barr must continue. My guess is there are going to be indictments coming, possibly as early as this spring. Then the wheels of justice will expose the wrongdoing. Or, possibly, there is no wrongdoing. Let our system of justice decide.
I am putting my trust in the courts after putting my faith in prosecutor Durham, Attorney General Barr and Inspector General Horowitz. As for Ms. Strassel, I turn to her "Potomac Watch" column every Friday. Last week, she pointed to William Barr as the "Adult of the Year." Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was doubtless appalled, and Adam Schiff, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, thought to dig up more dirt on him. Has Schiff discovered that Barr was cited for jaywalking in 1967? Look into it, fellows.
The next few months should show us if this award is real, or if he falls short.
Meting out genuine consequences for many of these dishonest, genuinely awful plotters, would tell the tale.
If that does not happen, then it will recur, and we will continue to have a two tiered justice system. If that happens, we will be in big trouble.
I will be impressed when he indicts someone and makes a sincere effort to convict him.
Until then - Barr is “Jawbone of the Year.”
Given his allowance of his corrupt DOJ to continue pursuing Michael Flynn without allowing him to see if present exculpatory evidence to the court as well as slow walking indictments of upper echelon corrupt DOJ/FBI officials I have serious doubts as to whether or not he is more interested in justice or the resumption of institutional legitimacy.
Yep. Barr has been absent. The rule of law has been destroyed in DC. No crimes have been prosecuted in 3 years. The democraps are out of control and destroying our country. Nice economy but once Trump is out of office we will be in total ruin.
Literally, I start laughing when a news article, talking about a crime somewhere in the U.S., says “the FBI has been called in”.
This is because given what we know about the politicized FBI and Justice Department, anybody with a brain agrees that there are only two ways to RESTORE a healthy opinion of the FBI and DOJ.
Namely, they have to fire hundreds of attorney’s and then start firing at lower levels. Plus, the top guys/gals must be put behind bars for a long time.
Until that happens, millions of us will just keep laughing at them.
He may be an adult but if I were making the output that he is making in his job I’d be fired!-)
'Nothing' to indicate Epstein death was not a suicide: Attorney General William Barr
And even if he does, how much you want to bet it won't be Obama, Hillary, or Soros.
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