Scooter, Mueller, and Anthrax

It is all so eerily symmetrical.  No parody, satire, or screenplay can compete with the absurdity and plot twists of the daily news.  But, as with great entertainment, one must keep all the prior episodes in memory in order to appreciate today’s “reveal.”  Trump pardoned Scooter Libby today. Scooter was Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, convicted in 2007 for perjury, obstruction of justice, and false statements in the cover-up of Cheney et al.’s treasonous fabrications of casus belli for the 2003 Iraq invasion. Scooter was Cheney’s “fixer.” If this is an SAT test, the answer is ScooterLibby:DickCheney::MichaelCohen:DonaldTrump.  Presumably, Trump is looking to set a precedent in which a silent loyalist can remain a silent martyr in the confidence that he will be rewarded with a pardon.

Now suppose my previous post (Cheney, Anthrax, & FBI) is spot-on (as I reckon to be so) with respect to Cheney’s central role in the 2001 anthrax attacks in the U.S.; Scooter would have been the point man, perhaps the only person with full knowledge.  I posited that the FBI bungled the “Amerithrax” investigation, and albeit for mostly wrong reasons, the right-wing propaganda machine is currently afire with the same accusation—because who was in charge of the FBI at that time and micromanaging the whole investigation?  Robert Mueller.  So, I find myself in ironic agreement with the right-wing screech-o-sphere in asserting that Robert Mueller did not exactly cover himself with glory during the anthrax investigation; most folk think the FBI got the wrong guy once, but I reckon they got it wrong twice, and the perpetrators got off scot-free.  Perhaps in 2001-2007, Mueller was an innocent who could not even imagine the anthrax mailings came from the upper reaches of the Executive Branch, their own bungled attempt to pin an attack-worthy crime on Saddam Hussein. I don’t know Mueller, but maybe he is more cynical these days:  fool me once shame on me; fool me twice, shame on you.  Or maybe it is simply that Trump’s crimes are of the conventional variety rooted in greed and narcissism, and the subordinate issues involve lies, money laundering, campaign violations, tax evasion, obstruction of justice, and coverups of personal embarrassments.  During the anthrax investigation, the FBI was in entirely new technical and behavioral territory in their misbegotten investigation; they were “in over their heads.”  Now, along comes the tragicomic figure of Donald Trump, putting Mueller and the Justice Department again in the center of a storm, but one in which the suspected crimes are “in their wheelhouse” in terms of investigative expertise.  Mueller has been Special Counsel for less than a year, yet Trump supporters are anxious for interviews and subpoenas to end; the anthrax investigation was unresolved but closed after more than seven years. Oh, what a tangled drama.  I don’t know how (or if) it will end. But if I’m looking for a protagonist, a hero who falls in hubris and misfortune, then rises in wisdom and integrity, I’m rooting for Mueller.  I see no pathway for Trump to prove heroic, but this after all is a very weird story (surprise me, Donald).  Stay tuned, and keep in mind that you and your descendants are part of the same story, like it or not.