The Russia hoax deniers are not happy.
They are howling with indignation, huffing and puffing at the mere suggestion their most treasured conspiracy theory is rapidly collapsing. The loudest voices in front of the camera are (of course) the most corrupt.
No big surprise here: John Brennan leads the pack of deniers, proving he’s not just in the denial business -- but (once again) acting as a master puppeteer.
He found a kindred spirit in the Queen of the Russia hoax herself, appearing on MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow Show”: “I’m really shocked individuals are willing to sacrifice their reputations, their credibility,” declared the former CIA director -- without so much as a wink -- “to continue to do Donald Trump’s bidding on something that clearly is just politically based.”
Wow! Really? The spookiest-spy-spook of them all -- Brennan -- delivers this narrative with a straight face. And just like that: he cherry-picks the narrative he likes, and edits out the inconvenient parts -- like The Department of Justice and FBI barreling ahead with criminal complaints aimed at him and his merry band of fanciful fact finders. And let’s face it -- talk of a grand jury indictment is never a welcome narrative.
Who would have guessed that James Comey would leave behind a trail of “burn bags” buried deep in the bowels of the FBI Hoover Building?
Surprise! Brennan, and his intelligence enablers, must be losing sleep over the contents -- and there’s plenty to lose sleep over -- thousands of pages’ worth.
Political posturing is one thing, but Brennan now has a lot of explaining to do. And a grand jury, unlike Rachel Maddow, won’t be bamboozled by his authoritative performance.
“Concerning” was Brennan’s word of choice to describe the DoJ’s actions. But, perhaps, he should concern himself with more pressing issues such as:
How does one justify stalking a sitting president and building a Russia-election-interference story out of the flimsiest leads imaginable? Emails from sources so absurd they’d be laughed out of a first-year law school class. Manufactured evidence courtesy of the Hillary campaign -- yes, the infamous Steele dossier. And Brennan and cohorts personal favorite swamp maneuver -- planting stories through corrupt intelligence contacts, watching the bogus intel hit the media airwaves -- with themselves as the “credible sources,”, then repackaging it as “breaking news.”
Perhaps Brennan should borrow a few common-sense tips from his own merry band of former Russiagate “investigators.”
Take disgraced ex-FBI director James Comey. He, for one, has given up his beachcombing hobby, where seashells mysteriously appear and spell out an ominous message for the president. (“86 - 47”).
Turns out, Comey has learned that no one enjoys a “courtesy car” pickup from the FBI, especially when you’re the one in the hot seat. It’s a humbling lesson -- answering questions on the other side of the FBI table.
With indictments looming, Comey, a lawyer and former prosecutor, won’t be following in Brennan’s “paid footsteps” at MSNBC (as a contributor). That appearance requires Brennan’s unique skill set: shamelessly pontificating while getting paid to talk about himself.
And then there’s Marc Elias, the former Democratic attorney for Hillary Clinton’s campaign, who never met a hand-picked CNN interviewer he didn’t like. CNN’s Brian Stelter, in a display of journalistic self-parody, actually asked Elias how the media should cover the dark clouds gathering over the ex-intelligence community.
Elias was delighted to coach Stelter. First, the flattery: “ …I think ignoring it -- and this, by the way, is one of the things your show does extremely well, and I wish all the media did what your show does.”
Then, Elias, offered a strategy tailor made for an objectivity-challenged media corps: “You don’t ignore the right-wing misinformation, you take it head-on. So that’s what I really try to do.”
At least, James Clapper, former director of the National Intelligence, exhibited the good sense to admit -- now that he’s in the DoJ hot seat -- that he’d “lawyer up” during an interview on CNN. Then, in classic Clapper fashion, he backtracked saying: “I suppose, I already have.” He may wish to double-check that. Meanwhile, he’s offering more of the same blah-blah-blah statements, calling the pending indictments “ridiculous” and insisting “it just -- It is untrue.”
This time round, Brennan, cannot control the narrative -- where the “truth” means whatever he decides should be redacted, reinterpreted or locked away for the public good. Or would that be for his good?
One can’t help but wonder if Brennan still has a few swamp contacts on speed dial -- not that they can do him much good now.
Image: AT via Magic Studio