Robert Mueller Is No John Dean

Robert Mueller is No John Dean John Dean, former Counsel to the President, was the star of the Watergate Hearings. John Dean was young, telegenic, informative, and knowledgeable He named names, times, and places by memory. He knew where the Nixon skeletons were buried. John has been extremely loyal to President Nixon until he realized that he would probably the next Presidential aide to be thrown under the bus by President Nixon. He also knew the Watergate Tapes would be totally incriminating. He thus became a state witness, substantially reducing the prison time he otherwise would have received. Americans watched John Dean testify live. I was at a computer conference at Stanford. TV’s were placed outside the meeting room to watch the Watergate Hearings. Attendees were glued to the TV’s. Forget the conference. I heard John Dean speak about a decade ago. He was just as riveting and informative as five decades earlier. Robert Mueller was the opposite today. Age has caught up to the distinguished 74 year old public servant. Robert Mueller has a distinguished career. He has served his country for decades, starting as a Marine in Vietnam. He sadly looked his age. (By way of full disclosure I’m 73, still teaching). His memory wasn’t good. He had to often ask for the precise paragraph in the report when asked specific questions. He had to have several questions repeated. If one is trying to sell a product or idea though TV, they need good optics. Robert Mueller's optics were poor. Why did the Democrats hold the two hearings when he had nothing to add to the published Mueller Report? The Special Prosecutor made it clear he would only answer questions within the report. He had nothing to add, and little to provide? He professed ignorance of Fusion GPS. What did Representatives Adam Schiff and Jerry Nadler hope to achieve? Were they blinded by their animus towards President Trump? Robert Mueller was never going to give them a smoking gun (a Watergate term). Those who were not in favor of impeachment before today will not be in favor of impeachment tomorrow, or next week, next month, or next year. Ardent liberals, such as filmmaker Michael Moore and Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Tribe were dismayed by the hearings. Even main stream media commentators were disappointed. I felt sorry for Robert Mueller in the time I spent watching. He deserved better in the twilight of his career. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Let's look at the bigger picture. The program of the Democratic House of Representatives was to investigate, impeach, and indict President Trump. They were salivating the past year over the upcoming Mueller Report. It would provide the smoking gun to destroy President Trump. It was a dud: no Russian collusion and no obstruction. The report said they could not exonerate the President. That was a political call to arms - not a statement of law. Prosecutors do not exonerate. They indict and prosecute, or not. They don't exonerate. We know after Robert Mueller's testimony yesterday that he was not heavily involve in the preparation and writing of the report. That would be the work of his assistant, Andrew Weissmann, who hired the partisan staff of liberals, one of whom was at Hillary's victory party and another who represented the Clinton Foundation. Robert Mueller did not forget what was in the 448 page Mueller Report. He didn’t know because he did not write it. It was staff written and he signed off on it.