The Right-Cheek Ass Clown for April, 2019

And it's that time again - time to recognize the one person who has risen above the surging tide of ass-clownery to become the latest representative face of the scourge that threatens our national sanity. It's never easy make the choice, but this time there's not much doubt - thus it is that we hold our collective noses, sigh, and announce

The Right-Cheek Ass Clown for April, 2019

and the award goes to

Attorney General

William P. Barr

Mr Barr, the first person to serve two nonconsecutive terms as Attorney General since 1850, was confirmed by the Senate in February of this year to replace Jeff Sessions*, who was hounded from office by Donald Trump for the sin of insufficient sycophancy. His nomination was widely viewed as an attempt by Mr Trump to install an Attorney General who was already on record as being skeptical of the Mueller investigation** and thus more likely to protect the president from any negative fallout.

When the 400-page Mueller Report was delivered to Mr Barr in March, 2019, the Attorney General quickly released a four-page summary that appeared to clear Mr Trump and his campaign of "collusion" with Russia, but declined to exonerate Mr Trump on charges of obstruction of justice. Mr Barr's thin summary was quickly seized upon by Mr Trump and his supporters, who quickly, loudly, constantly, and inaccurately trumpeted that he had been "completely and totally exonerated" from what the Trump partisans loudly and constantly declared to be a "witch hunt."

Although he had more-or-less committed to public release of the full Mueller Report, Mr Barr slow-walked the process of redacting various categories of information, delaying delivery of the full report to Congress and allowing the White House to loudly bang the exoneration drum before any more nuanced information contained in the report was revealed.

Later, during Congressional testimony on the Department of Justice budget which quickly turned to a discussion of the status of the release of the full Mueller Report, Mr Barr declared - without providing evidence - that he was preparing to review “both the genesis and the conduct of intelligence activities directed at the Trump campaign,” including possible improper “spying” by American intelligence agencies. This, of course, echoed complaints long shouted by Mr Trump and his supporters and further served to inflame partisan anger and complicate the search for truth.

For his obvious efforts to protect Donald Trump rather than to uphold the rule of law and the search for truth, Attorney General William P. Barr is named the Right-Cheek Ass Clown of the Month for April, 2019. Perhaps he will rise to the responsibilities of his office, but I'm not holding my breath ... and neither should you.

Have a good day. Come back tomorrow for Cartoon Saturday - you know you need the laughs. More thoughts then.

Bilbo

* Amazingly enough, never the recipient of an Ass Clown Award of his own.

**  Narrowly viewed, an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and the possible cooperation of the Trump campaign with that interference. Later somewhat broadened to include an examination of whether or not Donald Trump or his enablers committed obstruction of justice by attempting to interfere with or derail the investigation itself.