Robert Mueller, Dud

Things move so quickly, there is no time for anything, least of all a backward glance. I intended to write about Robert Mueller in March, but other issues took precedence over his death. One after another, the Trump outrages overwhelmed us and shoved Mr. Mueller out of sight. But I still feel compelled to say a word or two. His place in history is way too significant to forget.

The trouble is that he was a very mixed bag. When he died this winter, there were many heartfelt accolades. Andrew McCabe, one of Mueller’s successors at the FBI, opined that Mueller was an heroic figure who brought the FBI to new heights of intelligence gathering. He went from the mindset of getting our man to predicting when the next man would act (nefariously). I’ll take his word for it, but I’m in no position to judge. Mueller’s achievement took place behind the curtain, where the FBI does whatever it does.

For someone like me, there was a different Robert Mueller, not the model federal bureaucrat, but the defining disappointment of Trump 1.0. On one level, of course, he was perfect for the job: a moderate Republican with a background of service, widely respected by both Democrats and Republicans. He was a Roman senator in the mold of the greats: respected by all, scrupulously non-partisan, judicious, thorough, and incapable of alarmism. Nobody had a bad word to say. Even Republicans approved his remit, to investigate the charge that Trump had entangled himself with the Russians in an effort to triumph the 2020 elections.

I remember thinking how could anything go wrong. Even the evidence available to mere mortals seemed to point conclusively to interference by the Russians that was abetted by Trump and his scurrilous minions. We had lost the election, but Mueller would save us by the sheer force of his thoroughness and probity.

The problem is that Mueller failed to understand that the glacial pace of his painstaking investigation would ultimately work against the force of his conclusions. Whatever they were, they would be lost in the rush of Trump’s successful effort to flood the zone. Added to that was his political naivete. The judgement he rendered was a hyper-scrupulous statement that said, in essence that Trump was sort of guilty, but hey, a president is above the law, even if the commission “[did] not exonerate” Donald Trump. When Mueller handed the report to Attorney General Barr before explicating his findings directly to the public, he ensured that the Administration would construe the report as it chose. At that point, Mueller had cooked his own goose.

The morals of this story are not hard to discern. Goodness of character does not ensure a good outcome. Delay can undo an exemplary effort by overtaxing the patience of an impatient public and giving one’s enemies time to act. And political naivete is an unforgivable mistake when it comes to Donald Drumpf, Lord of Misrule.

Heaven forbid that we be tempted to come this way again. Mueller held up a scalpel to the the president’s chainsaw.