In one of the oddest political transformations in modern history, the Republican Party _ the supposed party of law and order _ has suddenly gone soft on Russia while declaring war on the FBI, the nation's pre-eminent law enforcement agency. The reason: They must protect the tender and spectacular ego of President Donald Trump.
Trump cannot bear the thought that Russia might have helped him win the 2016 election. Nor can he stand that FBI agents assisting the Justice Department's special counsel, Robert Mueller, are hitting paydirt in their probe of White House obstruction of justice and the Trump campaign's alleged collusion with Russia.
Two years ago, it was hard to find a pro-Trump Republican in Congress. Republicans today, particularly in the House, have thrown in their lot with Trump. They stayed silent as he announced he would not impose new sanctions on Russia for its meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
Friday's release of a previously classified GOP memo from the House Intelligence Committee underscores how overtly politicized the congressional oversight function has become. The memo goes to great lengths to undermine public confidence in the FBI investigation by singling out one of multiple FBI sources who alerted investigators to suspicious contacts between Trump campaign operatives and Russian agents.
The memo doesn't deal with the accuracy of the intelligence, only with the potential bias of one source, former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele. It tries to paint the FBI leadership as an organized conspiracy against Trump.
To construct this ludicrous assertion, Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif. _ a Trump devotee who served on his transition team _ blithely dismisses the fact that investigators obtained a warrant and three renewals authorizing the surveillance of former Trump foreign policy adviser Carter Page.
Each renewal required separate demonstrations to a federal judge that the surveillance had yielded new and prosecution-worthy intelligence. Even if the assumption of biased sources were true, the new surveillance results were convincing enough for a federal judge to authorize three renewals.
But Trump and House GOP members would rather have Americans believe in a vast FBI conspiracy that, presumably, includes even the judge himself. What a sad, new low in American politics.
FBI Director Christopher Wray, a Trump appointee, issued a stern warning Wednesday against the memo's release. He must certainly be questioning whether he can continue serving when the integrity of his highly respected agency is under such attack.
This is classic Trump. He demands abject loyalty to himself, not the rule of law. He is obsessed with revenge and unburdened with any allegiance to the truth. "My motto is: Always get even," he wrote in 2007. "When somebody screws you, screw them back in spades."
To its shame, the party of Lincoln has fallen in line behind him.
