Washington's version of multitasking creates multiple conflicts
SAN DIEGO -- What's the matter with Washington?
Where should we start?
The Senate Judiciary Committee put on a three-ring circus last week where the spotlight was fixed on Attorney General William Barr, who testified about his interpretation of the Mueller report.
Some of this is complicated, but what led us here is simple: In Washington, no one stays in their lane. Public officials often try to play a role assigned to someone else, grabbing as much power as they can with little or no restraint.
The latest person to get grabby was Robert Mueller. A former FBI director who is now an attorney in private practice, Mueller was named special counsel and tasked with investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election. What seems to have most interested him and his team of lawyers -- many of whom worked in the Clinton or Obama administrations -- was the possibility that Russia colluded with Donald Trump's campaign. They were not so interested in any Russian interference that might have helped Hillary Clinton's campaign. This exercise was always about jamming up Trump.
Now that the investigation is over, Mueller apparently wants to branch out and act as attorney general, a post to which he was not nominated or confirmed. After the actual attorney general, William Barr -- who was nominated and confirmed -- offered up a summary that Mueller felt "misrepresented" the findings of the report, Mueller fired off a letter to Barr. The special counsel essentially told the attorney general how to do his job -- a job that Barr actually did once before, under President George H.W. Bush, and a job that Mueller has never done.
What do you know? Mueller's ego is almost as big as Trump's.
As Barr told the senators, Mueller was "exercising the powers of the attorney general, subject to the supervision of the attorney general."
Barr was Mueller's boss, and a supervisor doesn't have to explain himself to a subordinate. It's usually the other way around.
Miraculously, Mueller's letter found its way to The Washington Post before Barr testified. What are the odds?
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