More Republican Authoritarian Creep

Authoritarian Cabal? Russian President Vladimir Putin,
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange & Donald Trump 

It certainly wasn't necessary to go see Star Wars: The Last Jedi over the weekend in order to be frightened by the Dark Side of the Force.

Recent efforts by some Republican members of Congress to try and discredit special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 elections represent a step towards a 21st century authoritarianism in America that is genuinely frightening to behold.

Especially considering some of the conservative characters leading the calls to fire Mueller.

As Ken Dilanian reported for NBC News last Wednesday, the inspector general of the Justice Department provided transcripts of private text messages shared between FBI agent Peter Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page in which the romantically-involved couple referred to Donald Trump as both an "idiot" and a "enormous douche" - Strzok and Page also expressed dislike for Bernie Sanders and former Obama administration Attorney General Eric Holder but don't hold your breath waiting for Republicans to express outrage at that.

Republicans quickly seized on the selected text messages that disparaged Trump as "evidence" that the entire special counsel investigation is tainted by some kind of anti-Trump bias - but how did they get a hold of them?

Earlier today Business Insider reporter Natasha Bertrand told MSNBC's Joy Reid that it's still not clear how the text messages got in the hands of Republican Congressman David Nunes as the DOJ's Office of the Inspector General said it did not authorize the release of the text messages.

Frankly if there's anyone responsible for anti-Trump bias, it's Trump's own big mouth, his chaotic White House, political inexperience and the seemingly endless stream of meaningless pycho-babble that he issues from his own Twitter account at all hours of the day and night.

According to an AP-NORC poll released on Saturday, 45's approval rate stands at around 32% - even though his approval numbers have ticked up a few points because of the healthy state of the economy, his approval numbers are still the lowest ever for a first-year president. Ever.

So it's pretty fair to say that a majority of the American people, Democrats, Republicans and independents alike, DO think that Trump is an idiot and a douche.

And it's not a violation of Department of Justice policy for members of the FBI to be romantically involved, or to express personal political opinions if they want to - they're not monks.

Republican Virginia Congressman Bob Goodlatte

Regardless, Republican House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte led the partisan saber-rattling on Capitol Hill last Wednesday during an oversight hearing of the committee.

He and other Republicans, including Jim Jordan of Ohio, leveled baseless accusations that the Mueller investigation, as well as senior FBI officials were politically motivated.

Goodlatte's name should be familiar.

His righteous indignation is actually kind of funny considering that the feisty representative of Virginia's 6th Congressional District is the same guy who made headlines back in January when he kicked off the 115th Congress by proposing to put the independent Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) under the oversight of the Republican-majority House Ethics Committee.

A jaw-dropping proposal so absurd that it quickly drew widespread criticism from members of both sides of the House, long-time political observers, members of the public and even Trump himself.

Embarrassed Republicans held an emergency meeting in which they agreed to ditch Goodlatte's proposal, after which Congressman Mike Simpson, a Republican from Idaho, sheepishly admitted to reporters, "We shot ourselves in the foot."

That's also a pretty good way to characterize Republican efforts to try and discredit special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia intentionally interfering with an American election.

Especially considering that Mueller is a decorated Vietnam veteran, a Republican who served during the Reagan administration, and a highly-respected former head of the FBI with an impeccable professional reputation - he was chosen as special counsel by current deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein.

And Rosenstein was nominated by Donald Trump to serve as deputy AG on January 31, 2017 - when he was then the longest-serving U.S. Attorney in the Justice Department.

Intelligence & terrorism expert Malcom Nance

So Republican efforts to paint the special counsel investigation as some kind of biased political witch hunt are totally ludicrous.

And worse, they swerve dangerously close to the kind of repressive authoritarian creep that define the governments of Russia, China and North Korea.

This Republican authoritarian creep was on display over the weekend too.

As David Edwards reported in an article for Raw Story on Sunday, former Naval intelligence veteran, career intelligence officer, terrorism expert and author Malcom Nance made appearances on MSNBC on both Saturday and Sunday to offer troubling insight into the specific ways in which the Trump administration is taking actions that are straight out of the authoritarian playbook.

Nance wrote the 2016 book "The Plot to Hack America: How Putin's Cyberspies and Wikileaks Tried to Steal the 2016 Election" 

On Saturday MSNBC's Chris Hayes interviewed Nance about a Washington Post report that U.S. intelligence agencies posses proof that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally ordered and oversaw the massive operation to slander Hillary Clinton using illegally hacked emails, documents and voice-mails in order to assist Donald Trump's campaign.

Because Putin realized that he can more easily manipulate Trump and use him to advance Russian foreign interests; including undermining the NATO alliance, dissolving the European Union, strengthening Russia's control over eastern Europe - and undermining American's faith in the democratic process in order to enhance Russia's global standing and influence.

Earlier today on CNN former director of national intelligence James Clapper said he felt Putin was using Trump like an intelligence "asset".

Sadly, the assorted conservative talking heads who now essentially shape the political message of the White House are parroting this shift towards authoritarianism by echoing the baseless criticism of the special counsel investigation and the Justice Department by Republicans on Capitol Hill.

Mueller-hating Fox host & Trump shill Jeanine Pirro

As was widely reported two weeks ago, unnamed sources within the White House who are close to Trump told New York Times reporters that Trump allegedly watches 6 to 8 hours of TV a day, mostly Fox News - not surprising given that most of his domestic and foreign policy talking points seem to come word-for-word from what he sees on Fox.

Want an example of just how absurd conservative media's criticism of Mueller has gotten?

Check out Allegra Kirkland's Talking Points Memo article from last Friday about Trump supporter and Fox host Jeanine Pirro.

As Kirkland reports, Pirro, a former judge who became Westchester County, NY's first female district attorney, opened her Fox show last weekend by giving her viewers a list of officials at the Department of Justice, including Robert Mueller, that she thinks "should not just be fired but who need to be taken out in handcuffs."

Yes, she's talking about career Justice Department officials trying to determine the degree to which a foreign adversary interfered in the American electoral process.

Kirkland notes that Pirro earned a reputation for being a rigorous public prosecutor for Westchester County, one who gained a reputation for her knowledge of the law and being an advocate of victim's rights.

So her willingness to bury her head in the sand and pretend that the overwhelming evidence gathered by the CIA, NSA, FBI and other U.S. intelligence entities showing that Russia did indeed conspire to interfere with U.S. elections in 2016 demonstrates the scope of the ideological bubble into which the current Republican Party has immersed itself.

A bubble in which authoritarianism replaces the democratic values on which the country was founded, and vilifying dedicated public servants who seek the truth on behalf of the American people is a substitute for leadership and accountability.

The Dark Side isn't just found in a fictional world that existed "a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away."

It's here, creeping up on the political institutions the Constitution considers sacred - like an unwanted vine that thrives on greed, fear and ignorance.