Something about the fuss over alleged ties between the 2016 Trump campaign and the Russian government in Moscow rings hollow.
For one thing, it would be incredibly stupid for a credible campaign for the White House to have intimate connections to the Kremlin. Not too long ago, such allegations would have sunk any candidate with designs on the presidency.
Of course, the successful campaign that brought Donald J. Trump to the White House was far from ordinary or, in fact, even credible when it started. But Trump managed to win the 2016 U.S. election despite huge disadvantages, including facing an extremely well-known and well-funded opponent.
But ties to Russia - the United States' longtime enemy and bitter political rival - would be seen to disqualify anyone from the country's most-powerful leadership position. True, it's been a long time since the cold war, Nikita Khrushchev and, in fact, the Soviet Union itself, and much has changed.
Remember when?
But is it so different that U.S. residents won't remember nuclear brinkmanship with Moscow and fallout shelter drills in grade school? No, most Americans probably remember or learned about them in their history studies.
So, no, a large majority of the American people realize the dangers posed by Russia and its allies, and President Trump is obviously no fool. That is why the Russia investigation led by former FBI Director Robert S.
Mueller, is suspect.
No 'red flags'
Trump is being far too cooperative with the Mueller probe to raise any serious red flags. Like the public service announcements used to say, if this had been an actual emergency, we would have been told to return to our homes and stay tuned to our televisions for updates.
True, Trump fired James Comey, the FBI director initially held over from the Obama administration, who had loudly taken control of the investigation into whether the victorious presidential campaign had improper contact with Russian officials.
But Trump survived a firestorm of criticism over that and has, in fact, been clearing some of the biggest habitual liars from his White House staff (with the notable exceptions -- so far -- of Kellyanne Conway and Steve Bannon).
The president's remaining White House employees have been virtually forthcoming with making documents and witnesses available to Mueller's inquiry, instead of fighting all the way to the Supreme Court to hang onto whatever public documents he was seeking like one of Trump's more-infamous predecessors.
Of course, it's likely that this "new" Trump is merely a calculated effort to quiet at least some of the criticism.
Collusion unlikely
But it also seems likely that Trump and his campaign leaders, including the recently searched Paul Manafort and the recently fired Reince Priebus, did not collude with Russia in their efforts to defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. That might be construed as treason, and it doesn't make any sense for a man who enjoyed an incredibly privileged life and had a chance to become president to risk everything for an advantage that would be speculative at best.
No, there might well be corruption or worse underlying the Trump administration's dismantling of decades of carefully crafted government regulations, but nothing as bad as treason.
It sounds more like greed and hubris than anything else.
So the Mueller investigation sounds like a "Red Herring" for political intrigue fans. But it does serve as a major - not to mention expensive - distraction from the actual main event.
