The Usual Suspects

This is the biggest, most delicious nothing burger I’ve ever eaten. Historic.

— Brian W. Schoeneman (@BrianSchoeneman) February 2, 2018

"Moonlighting," which made Bruce Willis a star and proved once and for all Cybill Shepherd was just a pretty face (ask your grandfather about it, punk!) died when the romance teased between the characters played by Bruce and Sybill was finally consummated.  If Shelley Long hadn't left "Cheers" for bigger and better things (bad choice!), they might have had to kill her off, because the romance with Sam was on again/off again almost one time too many.  Everybody likes the anticipation more than the reality.

Likewise, the Nunes memo was probably better as a scary concept than a calamitous reality.  I have no expertise in this area, but this guy does:

This is the scandal?? Are you kidding me? https://t.co/GpLGwqaobh

— Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) February 2, 2018

The Nunes memo is exactly the pathetic joke I expected it to be.

1) It admits that the Steele dossier is only a part of the FISA application. It even resolves once and for all that the Russia investigation did not start based on the dossier. It was based on "coffee boy".

— Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) February 2, 2018

2) The entire premise of its insuffiency is the fact that the FBI/DOJ didn't tell the FISC that Steele was biased against Trump. So the hell what? They're not REQUIRED to reveal that in every case. @OrinKerr did an exhaustive piece on the 4A issues for @lawfareblog

— Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) February 2, 2018

Unless that bias somehow renders the information, in and of itself, unreliable, it doesn't matter if Steele wore a "I'm with Hillary" button. It's irrelevant.

3) Release the FISA application. The FBI has to do it now. It would likely have been 50-100 pages. Release it.

— Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) February 2, 2018

Any pundit that goes out there and says this is the FISA memo is a bombshell scandal is either a hack, stupid, naïve, incompetent and/or is completely and unapologetically unaware of Fourth Amendment law involving warrant applications and confidential informants.

— Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) February 2, 2018

That, of course, won't faze Sean Hannity or Lou Dobbs of Jeanine Pirro, who apparently comprise Trump's Brain Trust, but for most of us, there is no there there.  Yes, the FBI is right to be insulted that this was released at all, or that Trump decided to release it before he'd read it (back to the Brain Trust, eh?), but is this the hill Christopher Wray wants to die on?   James Comey doesn't think so:

That’s it? Dishonest and misleading memo wrecked the House intel committee, destroyed trust with Intelligence Community, damaged relationship with FISA court, and inexcusably exposed classified investigation of an American citizen. For what? DOJ & FBI must keep doing their jobs.

— James Comey (@Comey) February 2, 2018

 I think Wray would be better off staying put and shaming Trump with this; because if this is all the GOP's got, they got nuthin'.

The memo admits the Steele dossier didn't prompt an FBI investigation,  the antics of George Papadapolous  ("Coffee boy") did; which more than explains why Trump labeled him that way.  This memo doesn't begin to turn attention away from Trump; it refocusses it.  As Charlie Pierce said the other day, the desire to get this memo out is beyond political posturing.  But once again, we've overestimated the intelligence of the monkeys running the monkey house.  Even Trey Gowdy wants to play with public ignorance about FISA and 4th Amendment law, but he can't jump into the abyss all the same:

As I have said repeatedly, I also remain 100 percent confident in Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The contents of this memo do not - in any way - discredit his investigation.

— Trey Gowdy (@TGowdySC) February 2, 2018

Trump wants cover to fire Rosenstein and find the Bork who will fire Mueller.  He doesn't appear to be any closer to that goal.

UPDATE:  Yeah, it's this bad:

Redstate (ahem, Redstate!) noticed that the memo also very obviously mischaracterizes Comey’s public testimony about the Steele memo, bringing the rest of its claims into question.

Maybe I should add a picture of a garbage fire.  As I said, this reflects more on the people in charge than on government in particular.   For example:

"Trump, by accusing the leadership of having a bias against Republicans, is once again maligning people he appointed to their roles, including FBI Director Christopher Wray, a man Trump nominated after he fired former FBI Director James Comey in May."

They hit everything but the target.  Problem is, they hit people they aren't firing at.