Transparency

Transparency. We've heard the word a lot over the past week as Democrats try desperately to dig for unsubstantiated, uncorroborated dirt that will inevitably be found in the Mueller report. Wild grand jury testimony, the comments of an official with a grudge, anything that can be used to destroy Donald Trump or anyone in his administration.

Of course, the Dems demands for transparency—for the release of not only the full, unredacted Mueller report but all investigative work products, is yet another path on their witch hunt. Driven by Trump Derangement Syndrome, they will not accept the broader findings of the report or acknowledge that they were W-R-O-N-G and that their claims were driven by the dirtiest kind of politics.

Kim Strassel comments:

Even if they get everything, the Democrats will never put those claims [collusion, obstruction, and now cover-up] to rest. The left is too invested. But Republicans could make matters worse—by handing Democrats the full Mueller monty, including thousands of pages of investigative material and grand-jury transcripts. Partisans will cherry-pick and leak every uncorroborated claim to fan the collusion-and-obstruction flames. They’ll mine the documents for nuggets they can turn into yet new scandals. The New York Times may have to boost its staff to keep up.

More important than the practical consequences of going along with the Democrats is the principle of standing firm. “Transparency” is one of those feel-good words that lead to sloppy thinking. Who doesn’t want more government transparency? Most people, when they think about it. Who wants generals posting attack plans online? Who wants President Trump tweeting out the nuclear codes?

More important, who wants the federal government spreading unfounded or uncorroborated accusations? Grand-jury and special-counsel investigations represent government power at its biggest and scariest. They can compel witnesses to reveal all manner of intimate details—banking records, personal text messages, loan defaults, medical information. The proceedings are kept secret to encourage candor—and candor also results in witnesses with grudges, speculation and even false testimony. Those swept up in probes like Mr. Mueller’s are often private citizens, innocent of any wrongdoing.

If the process yields no indictments, the proceedings normally go into a black hole. That’s because the government has no business spreading allegations or dirt from a case it is unwilling or unable to take to court.

But dirt is exactly what the Dems want. Since they're so interested in "transparency" it might be worth taking a transparent look at every instance of the the lies and distortions that characterize their vicious politics of personal destruction.

UPDATE:
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Adriana Cohen comments further:

Trump's enemies in Washington claim they're just fulfilling their congressional oversight duties and seeking "transparency." That's quite laughable given these are the same Democrats who aren't the slightest bit interested in oversight or transparency when it comes to their own party's dirty deeds or illicit actions by the deep state agents who spied on the 2016 Trump campaign using deceptive and misleading FISA warrants.

Not to mention other pernicious actions to remove a duly elected president.

Once such example is Rep. Schiff's attempt to block Congress from accessing the bank records of Fusion GPS to shield Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign and the Democratic National Committee, which paid millions to the slimy opposition research firm for the infamous "dirty dossier" used by the FBI to spur the special counsel investigation. Then there's House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler who, during the 1998 Bill Clinton investigation conducted by independent counsel Kenneth Starr, was against the public release of details contained in the report. Back then, he sought to protect grand jury testimony.

All of this illustrates that when it comes to government oversight and "transparency," Democrats have a distinct set of rules: One for thee, and none for me.

Sure, there's plenty of hypocrisy in Washington—on both sides of the aisle. But the Dems' actions over the past two years are unique. Sadly, they've established a new low that will now become part of our politics going forward. They should be ashamed—but shame isn't something that people like Adam Schiff or Gerald Nadler are capable of feeling.