If the Mueller Report were a basketball game, Coach Barr's team has a lead and he's slowing the game down.
Attorney General Bill Barr is "taking the air out of the ball," as we used to say, so there will be fewer possessions, fewer chances for the other team to score.
In old basketball parlance, it's a "stall." A clear if unexciting strategy. The coach is also orchestrating it very effectively, with a combination of Department of Justice protocol and legal obfuscation. The only thing is, this isn't a basketball game. It's supposed to be an investigation seeking truth into arguably the most serious political scandal of our times, and instead of transparency we're getting opacity. Instead of facts we're getting opinions. Masquerading as facts. Spin city, baby, as Dick Vitale would say.
Chokehold on information
In any kind of management, information is king. You can't operate effectively without reliable information, without good data. In this case, at this time, Coach Barr has a chokehold on information. He's controlling all the data.
This wouldn't be bad if the coach could be trusted to be fair. But in these hyper-partisan times knowing that he tried out for the team with a 19-page memo ripping the Mueller probe and arguing that the president didn't obstruct justice before he'd seen any evidence... well, let's just say this doesn't exactly engender confidence in his objectivity. And a careful reading of his four-page summary of the principal conclusions of the Mueller Report didn't exactly burnish his reputation as a straight shooter. More as a shrewd political operative.
He gave us a "no collusion" top line without a shred of underlying evidence. He put himself in the game to exonerate the president from obstruction and sat Congress down on the bench.
After a few days passed and the mist from the gaslighting started to dissipate, some people opened their eyes and began to excoriate the coach for not playing fair.
Meanwhile, as Democrats clamor to see the actual contents of the 400+ page Mueller Report, Coach Barr, like Steph Curry with the ball on a string, is deftly controlling the flow of the game. He's controlling the narrative, the message. He's shaping public opinion. The longer his team stalls, the better. By the time he releases a lord-knows-how-heavily redacted version of the Mueller Report sometime in mid-April, he's figuring a degree of public fatigue will have set in. So far the strategy's working great. Keep stalling. Take the air out of the ball. Just run out the clock.
Life in a Banana Republic
Is this the United States of America or a Banana Republic? Do facts mean anything anymore? Do we even know what they are? Or do we automatically gravitate to whatever version of alternative facts best suits our preferences?
Just a little info about myself. I'm not a Democrat, I'm a registered Independent. I have no fondness for Bill and Hillary. Nor Obamacare. Nor serial lying (though we won't go into that here).
But I do respect facts, and in this instance it would be helpful to have to the whole country see them. Like all the congressional committees should see the full unexpurgated Mueller Report. Soon as possible. Like yesterday. Or the day before.
This isn't Duke versus Michigan State. This is a slick cover-up of the most serious political investigation of our times. It's the Big Dance. The real Big Dance.
You know how much, given his history and openly stated biases, I personally trust Coach Barr to do a fair evenhanded redacting of the Mueller Report? 'Bout as much as I'd trust my dogs to charcoal broil a T-bone steak for me.
Behind that measured, avuncular, lawyerly way of his, you know how much I trust Coach Barr to give us 100% reliable unspun facts? 'Bout as much as I'd trust a timber rattler in my lounge chair.
