At the top of my list of great movie musicals is Oliver! Seeing it on the big screen as a ten-year old boy was magical. Everything about it was larger than life and the exquisite romanticism for that particular Dickensian time and place stayed with me to this day. The other preeminent feeling it instilled was gratitude for a full stomach. From the classic first scene of the orphans sentenced to days on end of gruel, through Fagen’s moldy sausages, on through the great scenes of London’s underclass enjoying bowls of stew with mugs of gin, basic sustenance was never far from view.
One vivid scene takes place at the start as the pathetic waifs march in for yet another bowl of heinous gruel while singing “Food Glorious Food.” Meanwhile, the kitchen is bringing monstrous helpings of all things hot and fresh for the visiting politicos to feast on upstairs. Those servings include two heaping bowls of steaming carrots and brussel sprouts, both of which I had previously despised, that the boys stop to gaze at with lust while taking in the aroma. I remember like yesterday the epiphany of understanding right then and there life was a relative exercise and I was very fortunate. Next to endless gruel, even plants from the dirt would taste damn fine. I never looked at a carrot or sprout the same way again.
Lately we’ve been presented with an analogous set of circumstances and forced to reassess what figuratively constitutes a carrot or brussel sprout when it comes to the the nation’s governance, indeed its prospects as a going democratic concern. . After a dizzying array of outrageous Trump appointments that made gruel seem substantial, our standards for optimism have been driven into the soil. After all, the first wave, which included the likes of DeVos, Price, Zinke, Pruitt and Carson illustrated clearly Trump campaign reassurances “the best people” would be on hand to provide checks on the President’s mercurial nature were less than dubious. Then came a wave of replacements like Kudlow, Bolton, Pompeo, and Mulvaney and fear became desperation as government by Fox/AM became a reality. The answer to whether it could actually get worse was resounding as Mathew Whitaker took over at DOJ, and Bill Shine entered the White House. Suddenly, Judge Janine as a Supreme Court nominee was no longer just an inane joke. Worse than gruel…..we’re talking assorted larvae.
All of this provided the context for a huge bipartisan sigh of relief that greeted Bill Barr’s selection to become Attorney General. Finally! A man with credentials that don’t include a paycheck with Rupert Murdoch’s signature. A real public servant! Someone who served a genuine President and wasn’t laughed out of town or reviled by all those he encountered! A serious selection!
Barr had actually served as senior Bush’s Attorney General from 1991-93. By all accounts, his confirmation hearing was a love fest. Senate Judiciary Chairman Joe Biden sung Barr’s praises for “candid responses” that included labeling Roe v Wade a travesty, but agreeing to respect the decision – in other words, obey the law – and declaring the key to curbing violent crime was more prison space. Conservative but honest. Never underestimate candor!
When George Sr. became a one-termer, Barr glided into private practice, but not before he headed an adhoc crime commission formed by then freshly minted Virginia law-and-order Governor George Allen. The group, after some exhaustive work, came up with the boldest and most daring idea for more effective criminal justice they could muster…… abolish parole! Barr was one tough lover!
Seems Barr came to Trump’s attention the way many lawyers meet him, as a possible member of his defense team. Well, wouldn’t you know, the two began chatting and sort of hit it off. As luck would have it, Barr supported the President’s firing of Comey and saw absolutely no issue of obstruction of justice! Moreover, Barr informed Trump how disgusted he was that some members of Robert Mueller’s team had made donations to Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Small world! Finally, Barr apparently validated many a Trump tweetstorm by letting the President know Jennie Rhee and Bruce Ohr of the Special Counsel’s team were awash in conflicts of interest. Talk about kizmet! What luck….Trump happened to find a guy who agreed with him all the way down the line AND had integrity! Pure miracle.
Barr’s confirmation process went every bit as smooth as near 30 years earlier, and for many of the same reasons. No, he couldn’t promise to make the whole Mueller report public, but he was being honest. Congress and the people would see plenty…. trust me. Remember, I actually have gravitas….. Mr. straight shooter. You could have had Whitaker for God’s sake… don’t be ungrateful. I’m my own man; if I bury Mueller’s work it will be for the right reasons. Need I remind you everyone agrees I’m highly principled?!
And so here we sit with two years of top investigative work synopsized in a few paragraphs. After numerous indictments of members of the President’s campaign team, including the conviction on multiple counts of his campaign manager, Barr’s assessment that Trump is essentially free and clear is all we have. Meanwhile, Trump and his state media apparatus have more than enough to declare him both Sacco and Vanzetti, a martyr to the deep state’s nefarious whims.
Apparently, Barr is a very careful and deliberate reader. When, what or even if we see the Mueller report now seems anyone’s guess. Yet and still, the murmurs steadily growing from disgruntled Mueller team members that there is much more to their findings than Barr’s summary pretends, validates the obvious…. the Mueller Report must be released to the public yesterday or a cover up is in the works. There exist no good reasons for delay… zero.
Saying it too often doesn’t make it less true; this Presidency is ruining us nine ways to Sunday. The fact Barr was heralded as some salvationary nod to propriety from a White House utterly bereft of any only clarifies another consequence of the demolition of standards underway since that awful first Tuesday three Novembers ago. The silver lining should be understanding the lesson it provides…. the gruel Trumpism has foisted on us should never diminish the standards we demanded before it. We deserve much better and settle for less at our peril. BC