An Old Joke

There an old joke that goes like this:

A man is in bed with his wife's best friend when she arrives home, finding them naked and otherwise occupied.

She screams at her husband, "How could you ... and with my best friend!"

The husband grabs the bed sheet to cover up and calmly states, "It's not what you think. We weren't doing what you think we were doing."

The wife's friend, struggling to cover herself as well, sheepishly nods her head in agreement.

"But I saw you," yells the wife, "right in front of me with my own two eyes! I saw you!"

The husband looks offended, "Who do you believe? Me—or your lying eyes."

Over the past decade, the Democrats and their trained hamsters in the media play the role of the husband and his wife's best friend. When presented with damning evidence of a scandal involving one or more Democrats, the Dems exclaim, "Who do you believe, me—or your lying eyes." The trained hamsters play the role of the naked girlfriend and nod their heads in agreement.

This M.O. has played itself out yet again over the past few weeks in the Fusion GPS and Imran Awan cases. Kim Strassel summarizes the Awan case:

Imran Awan was arrested at Dulles International Airport July 24, while attempting to board a flight to Pakistan. For more than a decade the congressional staffer had worked under top House Democrats, and he had just been accused by the FBI of bank fraud.

It was a dramatic moment in a saga that started in February, when Capitol Police confirmed an investigation into Mr. Awan and his family on separate accusations of government theft. The details are tantalizing: The family all worked for top Democrats, were paid huge sums, and had access to sensitive congressional data, even while having ties to Pakistan.

The media largely has ignored the affair, the ho-hum coverage summed up by a New York Times piece suggesting it may be nothing more than an “overblown Washington story, typical of midsummer.” But even without evidence of espionage or blackmail, this ought to be an enormous scandal.

Because based on what we already know, the Awan story is—at the very least—a tale of massive government incompetence that seemingly allowed a family of accused swindlers to bilk federal taxpayers out of millions and even put national secrets at risk. In a more accountable world, House Democrats would be forced to step down.

Unlike the evidence-free Russian collusion "scandal" that has absorbed 24/7 media coverage for many months, the Imran Awan scandal is real. Awan has been arrested and charged with bank fraud. The media yawns. There is clear evidence that he and his associates bilked 20 plus Democratic politicians out of significant taxpayer dollars, that he potentially had access to secret files, that he has connections to Pakistan and potentially, shadowy terrorist groups including Hezballah, and that he just might have information damaging to the DNC and its past chair, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz. The media, acting like the wife's best friend, simple nods when Democrats ask us to believe them, rather than our lying eyes.

This approach is not new. It worked to perfection with the many serious scandals of the past administration. Evidence of wrong-doing was copious and public, and yet, we were asked to ignore it all by the husband and his girlfriend. They prevailed. Now, the same request is evident in the Awan (and Fusion GPS) case.

Strassel provides more information:

According to an analysis by the Daily Caller’s Luke Rosiak, who has owned this story, the family has collected $5 million since 2003 and “appeared at one time or another on an estimated 80 House Democrats’ payrolls.” Yet Mr. Rosiak interviewed House staffers who claim most of the family were “ghost” employees and didn’t come to work. Only in government does nobody notice when staffers fail to show up.

The family was plenty busy elsewhere. A litany of court documents accuse them of bankruptcy fraud, life-insurance fraud, tax fraud and extortion. Abid Awan, a brother, ran up more than $1 million in debts on a failed car dealership he somehow operated while supposedly working full time on the Hill. One document ties the family to a loan from a man stripped of his Maryland medical license after false billing. Capitol Police are investigating allegations of procurement fraud and theft. The brothers filed false financial-disclosure forms, with Imran Awan claiming his wife had no income, even as she worked as a fellow House IT staffer ...

Yes, it is weird that Ms. Wasserman Schultz continued to shield Imran Awan to the end. Yes, the amounts of money, and the ties to Pakistan, are strange. Yes, it is alarming that emails show Imran Awan knew Ms. Wasserman Schultz’s iPad password, and that the family might have had wider access to the accounts of lawmakers on the House Intelligence and Foreign Affairs committees.

Yet even if this never adds up to a spy thriller, it outranks most of the media’s other obsessions. The government, under the inattentive care of Democrats, may have been bilked for ages by a man the FBI has alleged to be a fraudster. That’s the same government Democrats say is qualified to run your health care, reform your children’s schools, and protect the environment. They should explain this first.

As a counterpoint, the trained hamsters have spent weeks investigating a simple meeting between Donald Trump, Jr. and a Russian lawyer that had no actionable outcome, no follow-up, and no importance—none. But those same hamsters don't have the time or the interest to investigate and report a major story that actually does have evidence of significant wrong-doing, national security implications, and indications of massive political incompetence. Why? Because—Democrats are involved. So the train hamsters cover up their naked bias and nod their heads.