Sound and Fury

"It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." -- Macbeth, by William Shakespeare.

"There's no there there." -- Gertrude Stein

   For all the ranting and bloviating by White House stooges led by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) about the alleged "shameful" revelations in the highly touted memorandum prepared by Nunes' staff -- which they refused to show to their colleagues on the House intelligence committee nor to members of the Senate intelligence committee -- once a reader muddles through the legalese the conclusion can only be that the memo is much ado about nothing.
   In fact, even the president's own counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, in a cover letter accompanying the release of the notorious four-page document, noted that the memo "reflects the judgments of its congressional authors."
  It's an opinion piece, prepared by Republicans for Republicans and without the approval of the FBI or the Department of Justice. Neither did the Nunes crew allow any input from Democrats on the committee, nor did they permit their Democrat colleagues to release a separate memo amplifying and contradicting what few allegations there are in the memo itself.
   For those curious enough about what's in the memo, it can be tracked online and printed out. That's what news media have done, since the memo is now public.
   And if there's any consternation from the GOP about the widespread pooh-poohing of the allegations perpetrated therein, that's likely to come out for a journalistic second-day lead on followup stories.
   Meanwhile, we join the widespread pooh-poohing conclusion that the memo itself is just so much pooh-pooh.