THE MEMO – AT 11:47 A.M. ET:  The now-famous memo was dropped on us yesterday, and already it's boring.   Oh, and do you remember the State of the Union message?  When was that?

The news moves quickly, and, as Johnny Carson used to say, how quickly they forget.

So what about this memo?  Basically, it is a starting point.  It suggests that elements of the FBI and Justice Department used deceptive practices to launch investigations into the Trump campaign.  The memo was released by House Republicans.  The Democrats are writing their own memo, which the media will use to discredit the Republican memo.  The only beneficiaries will be the makers of copying machines.

There is enough in the GOP memo to support calls for a wider investigation than the one Mueller is conducting.  Dwight Eisenhower used to say that, if you have a difficult problem, enlarge the problem.  We have a difficult problem – sorting out all the details of who, if anyone, colluded with Russia and who, if anyone, used illegal procedures during the presidential campaign to destroy the other side.  It is time to appoint a second special counsel, with a focus, not on Trump, but on the Democratic Party and its operatives.

Yet, while advocating a second special counsel, I call attention to the havoc caused by the first one.  This is no way to run a government in a free society – to have a former FBI director, now special counsel, running loose and investigating almost anything he wishes.  It is a dangerous mechanism, especially considering that one of the things Mueller is probing is Trump's firing of Mueller's successor at the FBI, James Comey, who is a personal friend of Mueller's.  Conflict of interest anyone?

The general consensus is that Mueller will survive and will pose a grave danger to Trump and the Republican Party, especially if Mueller releases his "findings" just before the midterm elections.  He will find things that reflect badly on Trump, because "finding things" is what a special counsel must do to justify the millions of dollars spent.  Whether those "things" will lead to any action against the president is another matter.  That may depend on who controls the House after the election.  The House is where impeachments begin. 

The president had a spectacular week.  The economic news remains strong, despite a blip in the stock market.  His State of the Union was very well received.  He got a major bounce in the polls.

But Mueller is in his path.  And Mueller has the backing of an increasingly hysterical, anti-Trump media.

February 3,  2018