Authored by Roger Kimball via AmGreatness.com,
Doubtless your mother used to tell you to count your blessings. It was good advice.
Your situation may be bad. In the case of the United States, things indisputably are bad, and worsening. You know that. But look on the bright side.
Sure Merrick Garland, the first American Gothic attorney general of the United States, is a partisan horror show, withholding real protection from Supreme Court justices who are threatened by violent criminals even as he stigmatizes as “domestic terrorists” parents who criticize their local school boards and orders the FBI to conduct dawn raids on critics of the regime. He is a horrible man and a dangerous partisan hack, the very instantiation of the two-tier application of the law that has made such a mockery of justice during Biden’s tenure.
But again, look on the bright side. Garland will soon be gone. And remember, he almost made it to the Supreme Court. Obama nominated him in the waning days of his administration. But Donald Trump had other ideas and—let’s give credit where credit is due—Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) made sure that Garland’s nomination got lost when Republicans held the majority. I am no fan of McConnell’s, but I try to remember to say a little prayer for him whenever I list my intentions. By scotching Garland’s ascension to the Court, McConnell did the country a huge favor.
I say Garland will “soon” be gone. Most of my readers will assume I mean on or about January 20, 2025, when the next Republican president assumes office.
It might take that long. But recent developments have me wondering whether he might make his congé even earlier.
A few days ago, it was reported that an unnamed, senior IRS special agent was seeking whistle-blower status in connection with the ongoing investigation of First Son Hunter Biden, who has serious tax problems.
According to a letter from the agent’s lawyer to several House and Senate committees, the agent laid out multiple examples of “preferential treatment and politics improperly infecting decisions and protocols that would normally be followed by career law enforcement professionals in similar circumstances if the subject [i.e., Hunter Biden] were not politically connected.”
The agent’s allegations also “contradict sworn testimony to Congress by a senior political appointee” and “involve failure to mitigate clear conflicts of interest in the ultimate disposition of the case” against Hunter Biden.
An “unnamed senior political appointee,” eh? Well, that unnamed status didn’t last long. On Thursday, the New York Post reported that the international man of mystery was none other than Merrick Garland himself.
Back in March, Garland had insisted to Congress that the investigation into Hunter Biden’s extracurricular activities was free from political interference. David Weiss, the U.S. Attorney investigating the case, had full autonomy, Garland said. Quoth Garland, “The U.S. attorney has been advised that he has full authority to make kind of those referrals you’re talking about or to bring cases in other jurisdictions if he feels it is necessary, and I will assure that if he does, then he will be able to do that.”
It was not reported whether that claim was greeted with titters. I assume that the echoing claim from the White House, that the investigation would be “free from any political interference by the White House,” was greeted by at least restrained and incredulous laughter.
Thierry Monasse/Getty Images
What does it all portend? Probably about the same thing that the revelation last week regarding Secretary of State Antony Blinken portends. Blinken, it transpired, was the origin of the campaign against the story, first reported by the New York Post, about Hunter Biden’s “laptop from hell.” Forget about the salacious bits—the drugs, the guns, the whores. More damaging were the emails detailing some of the Biden family’s corrupt business dealings with various foreign entities, dealings that clearly implicated the “Big Guy,” Joe Biden.
The Post bombshell was detonated a scant two weeks before the 2020 presidential election. It promised disaster for the Biden campaign. What to do? Remember the 51 former intelligence specialists, including such senior figures as former CIA director John Brennan and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who signed a letter testifying that the laptop bore “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation”?
According to the sworn testimony of Michael Morell—a senior Democratic operative—it was he, working hand-in-glove with Blinken, then a Biden campaign official, who organized the letter and helped shut down the story.
Why did he do this?
Two reasons.
He wanted to help Joe Biden in his debates with Donald Trump, so he wanted the story buried. Beyond that, he said, he wanted Biden “to win the election.”
What better way to help than to use the power of the state to censor the media and thereby suppress an unflattering story, one that would probably have altered the outcome of the election?
It is possible that both Garland and Blinken will have to answer for their alleged malfeasance. Both might easily be impeached and forced from office.
If they are, it will be a signal that the Regime is about to expel Joe Biden and find another candidate for 2024. I don’t really expect that to happen, though anything is possible in this increasingly yeasty situation. More likely, I think, is that our deeply ensconced two-tier system of “justice” will prevail, just as it is, for the benefit of Hunter Biden.
More’s the pity, but the longer such outrages continue, the more definitive the reverse peristalsis of swampy denizens in Washington, D.C. will be in November 2024.
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