Special Prosecutor? Sure.

I don’t necessarily buy into the notion that ‘Russian Influence’ was a desicive factor in the 2016 election, for one thing the demographics that spelled Democratic defeat were Women, African-Americans, and Latinos (check the changes from the Obama victories). This is not particularly surprising if you recognize 2016 was a “Change” election and one candidate represented that and the other… not so much.

Nor is there any evidence whatever for ‘Russian Hacking’ in the sense of actually tampering with the ballots. I’m not saying it’s not possible because it has certainly been demonstrated in theory, simply that the logistics make it unlikely. If by ‘Hacking’ you mean exposing the actual factual and poorly protected email of the Democratic National Committee it has the advantage of being decidedly possible though at this point is not proven. Do I feel sorry for the DNC? No more than I do for Sony when it’s hack exposed that they had a written company policy to pay female Actors less than male Actors for the same work.

And if they sought to release them in a way that was beneficial to their interests, what do you expect? The United States has been interfering in other countries’ elections since at least the 1890s (Spanish-American War? Phillipines? Cuba? Bueller?). We sent an Army to Russia after the Revolution to crush the Reds and restore the Romanovs. Who’s the exceptionally special snowflake now?

The modern “Red Scare McCarthyism” does frighten me a little, not the least because Russia is one of very few countries that could contemplate a Nuclear First Strike should they feel sufficiently existentially threatened. If you’ve forgotten how that works I suggest you watch Dr. Strangelove again.

More disturbing and proximate is the willingness of the Institutional Democratic Party to blame all their ills on outside influences and racism, and abject denial that 30 years of explicitly Neo Liberal Policy Failure have anything to to do with their current electoral woes. They seem content to push more Identity Politics for the 99% while delivering Economic gain only for the top .01%. Explain to me why I should vote for them again?

There is a fruitful area of inquiry into the Trump relationship with Russia and that’s Public Corruption and Perjury. There is little doubt that Jeff Sessions, Attorney General of the United States, and other Trump Administration officials perjured themselves in their confirmation hearings. They should be impeached and go to jail. For the Donald himself there’s that little matter of the emoluments clause which is a straight up violation of Article II, not even buried in some obscure Amendment or treaty (also law of the land by the way).

Devin Nunes is making it very hard for Republicans to claim they can run an impartial investigation on Russia
By Amber Phillips, Washington Post
March 27 at 2:01 PM

We still don’t know who gave Nunes the surveillance information or its significance to the committee’s broader investigation into Russia’s meddling. Nunes publicly said if the president’s name did show up in surveillance, it had nothing to do with Russia. He also told CNN that the president didn’t even know Nunes was at the White House Tuesday.

But here’s what anyone trying to follow the twists and turns of this Trump-Russia-wiretapping story is left with: A top Republican congressman and Trump ally was at the White House the day before he released information that appeared to somewhat defend the president on his defenseless wiretapping claims.

What’s more, the congressman released this secret information to the president — whose circle is under investigation by the FBI for alleged ties to Russia — before sharing it with his own committee members.

From there, it’s not a stretch for a reasonable person to consider whether Nunes, who served on Trump’s transition team, wants to protect the president. And from there, it’s not a stretch to question the impartiality of the investigation Nunes is leading in the House on Russia meddling in the U.S. election.

And that, say ethics and national security experts, is where the real damage in Nunes’s White House trip lies.
…
On Monday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said he didn’t think Nunes had created a perception problem with all this: “You can’t ask someone to do a review of the situation and then create an interference because they’re reviewing the situation,” he said, referring to the fact Nunes probably had help from a White House official to review the classified documents in a secret room.

But Congress, by its nature, was already at risk of appearing motivated by partisanship as it looked into these very critical questions. At the very least, Nunes just opened up the door for people to believe the worst about Congress: that its members put politics above all else.
…
There’s no immediate sign that Republican leaders would be on board with any of those investigative alternatives. They’re already looking into something their president would rather they leave alone — Russia. Neither House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) nor Nunes immediately responded to a request for comment about the latest Nunes revelations.

Ryan has repeatedly said that Congress’s own intelligence committees are perfectly up to the job of impartially investigating Russia, wherever it leads.

But Nunes is making it that much harder for Republicans to argue that.

I also agree that this should investigated as thoroughly as Benghazi, Benghazi!, BENGHAZI! or a consensual blowjob.