I know the truth
But I can't say
And I have to turn my head
And look the other way
I'm not afraid
And I won't lie
As long as I see no wrong
I won't need to testify
I see the world
And I'm looking from a high place
Way above it all
Standing on higher ground
No, those weren’t Robert Mueller’s closing comments yesterday. They’re actually lyrics from an
Alan Parsons Project song—Standing on Higher Ground.
Must be nice—standing up there, sphinx-like, inviting people to parse your words but never quite saying them; turning us into solvers of the Jumble every morning, or of the Times puzzle on Sundays. There’s a little bit of a thrill involved in "getting it."It’s temporary: yesterday was a little bit of a thrill.
But today we’re left with the puzzling jumble of Robert Mueller’s final (don’t ask me again because this is all I’m going to say) explanatory monologue on his two-year investigation: a nine-plus minute middle-school-level book report explaining how the president obstructed justice but cannot be charged and how the Russians stole the 2016 election and shouldn’t be allowed to do it again.
Good morning, good afternoon, and good night.
Even Bill Barr made an opening statement, then came back and made another. And Barr was lying. Think of the power of truth you’re relinquishing, Mr. Mueller. Or get the hell back here and finish.
Oops, sorry, shouldn’t curse at Mr. Mueller. I don’t want to sully his reputation by having people think he abides bad language. And that seems to be what yesterday’s presentation was all about: preserving his good name. But he knows, as we all know, that this committee was empaneled not to give one man a chance to bask in the glow of integrity, but to find out just what kind of crimes had been, were, and continue to be committed by the President of the United States, and what the hell we’re going to do about it. (Oops, sorry again.)
In “The Second Coming,” Yeats wrote “The best lack all conviction, while the worst/Are full of passionate intensity.”
Mueller. Trump. 'nuf said.
Saving the republic ought to take precedence over saving one man's reputation for protocol. In the end we need that passionate intensity from someone like Mueller. We need him to say, without obfuscation, “Trump obstructed justice, now let’s get him the hell out of the White House for good.”
Except for the hell part of course.
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