Highly recommended comment at Conservative Tree House in response to:
John Ratcliffe Explains Why Corrupt Senators on SSCI Would Never Allow His Nomination – And Why a Senate Impeachment Trial is A Risk…

hokkoda says:
December 15, 2019 at 11:53 pm
Eight days ago, if anybody had said with absolute certainty that the IG Report would contain specific, actionable, recitations of FBI misconduct to include once-and-for-all stating that the dossier was the central argument behind the FISAs (Comey et al lied), that Carter Page was in fact a CIA asset while in Russia (lots of liars involved in that one), that the FBI knowingly doctored evidence while withholding volumes of exculpatory facts which should have led them to close down Crossfire Hurricane before the election, and that everyone who signed off on those FISAs signed untruthful warrants, I think everyone on here would have said “Yeah, right, IG will cover it up, paper it over, nothing to see here”. As a cynic about politics, I was among those people, but was willing to be pleasantly surprised.

I was pleasantly surprised.

But the IG went even further by confirming everything in the Nunes Memo from 2018 as 100% factual and true, and everything in the Schiff Memo as 100% false and a lie. All 7 “points” in Schiff’s memo are a 100% lie. Nunes? Vindicated. And, the IG confirmed once and for all the funding sources for the dossier (Clinton), and even included a very brief statement “the candidate is aware” of Steele’s activities. So it wasn’t just Clinton money, it was Clinton activity, and that is not a small problem for her if she wants to run again. Can you imagine her on stage with Trump, and he can hold up the IG Report and state, unequivocally, “If you want to know who made up the Russia hoax, and put the country through a living hell of lies, you’re looking at her.”

It is also worth noting that much of the FBI senior leadership in place at the start of the Trump Administration has been fired, demoted, reassigned to nonessential positions pending investigations, or otherwise moved out of the DOJ. I think we’re up around two dozen people now, maybe more. The purge continues. I think a whitewash would have more disciplinary memos in people’s files and far fewer firings/demotions/resignations. A criminal investigation, however we think that might progress from here, is in progress…not an administrative review. And, simultaneous letters from Barr and Durham the day the IG Report was released stated, unequivocally, that they disagree with Horowitz’s statement that Crossfire Hurricane was properly predicated. They didn’t say that to placate guys like me. They said it, I believe, because they think they have a pretty good case. Oh, and that criminal probe has extended out into the IC and DoD as well as duration (not just pre-election, but trans and post election…at least up to Mueller).

The Mueller Report is now about two heartbeats away from being shown to be a complete fraud. Last summer, Trump was saved because it was clear Mueller was a figurehead, and Barr had done an excellent job cutting through 500 pages of Andrew Weissman’s temper tantrum to point out there was no crime and there was no obstruction. The IG Report all but burns Mueller to ashes because while Horowitz says the FBI properly started Crossfire Hurricane, he also unequivocally points out that the investigation should have ended within a few weeks or months at the most because ALL of the evidence they collected was exculpatory. Mueller, of course, owns that final Page/FISA application, and will have to answer for a Flynn prosecution that increasingly looks like it was based on the same FBI and prosecutorial misconduct as the FISA applications…and run by many of the same faces. If Flynn’s prosecution gets blown up, stick a fork in Mueller, and Papadopolous’ conviction will get thrown out too.

I don’t think these are small things. Are Burr and Warner up to no good? Of course they are. They’re United States Senators. Put some robes on those guys, and Beware the Ides of March. That’s to be expected.

What these Senators are not used to is a POTUS who can put pressure on them personally. You think a trip to North Carolina by Trump to tell MAGA voters there to get Burr off his ass and approve a nomination would be ineffective? Ratcliffe, Nunes, and others are sort of mini-heroes of the anti-Resistance. What has Burr done besides cover his own ass? You think that message wouldn’t come through in resounding fashion in NC? You think those voters wouldn’t call Burr and read him the riot act given what we know now. If I’m Trump, I would send Ratcliffe’s name back up for ODNI, but not before I called all my pals over at FNC and Talk Radio and said, “Here’s the guy I’m going to nominate, and you’re going to help me put pressure on Burr to get the job done. Get his voters calling him every day to yell at him.”

You have to play these guys on their turf, but you use your own rules. Last month, Corey Gardner in CO got flaky about Trump/impeachment. Within 2 days of getting blistered by phone calls, he had signed on to co-sponsor Graham’s bill.

Voters still matter, but you have to be willing to fight, not make it sound like it is hopeless. Getting this right means we acknowledge the corruption that exists, and then we lay out an executable plan to destroy it. We don’t live in a dictatorship yet, and Sen. Burr is not untouchable.