Now the game’s up. The report’s real author has spoken and he wasn’t pleased. What should happen to an attorney general who can’t be trusted to be completely truthful with the American people?<\/b>
\nThe letter we were all waiting for – at least all of us who’d been watching the proceedings with a slightly obsessive eye – landed explosively earlier tonight in the nation’s capital. The Washington Postreported that Special Counsel Robert Mueller wrote to Attorney General Bill Barr in late March complaining that in his now-famous four-page summary memo Barr \u00ab\u00a0did not fully capture the context, nature and substance\u00a0\u00bb of Mueller’s work.
Oh, was that all, just the \u00ab\u00a0context, nature, and substance\u00a0\u00bb? In other words, pretty much the whole ball of wax. Which is exactly what I surmised, and said, at the time, with a couple of posts, Attorney General Bill Barr Has Made A Huge Miscalculation, and The Barr Cover-Up: Call It What It Is.
Why was I so sure? Because as a former VP of Corporate Communications for a Fortune 500 company, one thing I have pretty keen antennae for is spin. I know spin when I see it; I feel it in my corporate bones. My assessment from the get-go of Mr. Barr’s handiwork? Spin City, baby, as Dick Vitale of March Madness fame might put it. Technically legally accurate, sure, but designed to shape public perceptions by placing the president in absolutely the most favorable possible light, given the facts at hand. Spin City. Slick and legalistic but still spin.
As I said at the time, the fix was in. But now the game’s up. The report’s real author has spoken and he wasn’t pleased with what he read.
Interested parties across the country wasted no time weighing in.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal said of Barr to CNN, \u00ab\u00a0In effect, he lied to the American people.\u00a0\u00bb
Carl Bernstein, investigative reporter of Watergate fame, said to CNN, \u00ab\u00a0The attorney general of the United States misrepresented the context of the most important investigation of the last 44 years.\u00a0\u00bb
Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe posted on Twitter: \u00ab\u00a0AG Barr seriously misled the U. S. Senate on April 10 when he said under oath that he ‘didn’t know’ whether Mueller agreed with his summary of what the Mueller report concluded. The truth? Mueller had written to Barr two weeks earlier saying he definitely didn’t agree. Perjury?\u00a0\u00bb
Credibility and integrity
Not only perhaps perjury, but something that from a management and leadership perspective is just as important: credibility and integrity.
It’s a sad of state of affairs when the credibility and integrity of the attorney general, the highest upholder of laws in the land, is called into serious question. Numerous management studies – not to mention plain old years of common-sense business experience – place integrity and credibility at or near the top of any good leader’s attributes. Integrity and credibility are deeply intertwined; you can’t have one without the other. The best leaders, whether in management or politics, have both.
It’s a sad state of affairs when our nation’s partisan divide runs so deep that an attorney general feels his first loyalty is to protect the president rather than to provide accurate \u00ab\u00a0context, nature, and substance\u00a0\u00bb to the American people. But to sacrifice them at the altar of spin. About the most important investigation of our time.
What should happen to an attorney general who can’t be trusted to be completely truthful with the American people? Should Barr be impeached? Let’s just say, having been exposed tonight by the Washington Post, and more importantly by Robert Mueller, to be challenged in the areas of credibility and integrity, I don’t see how he can continue effectively in the role.
The letter we were all waiting for – at least all of us who’d been watching the proceedings with a slightly obsessive eye – landed explosively earlier tonight in the nation’s capital. The Washington Postreported that Special Counsel Robert Mueller wrote to Attorney General Bill Barr in late March complaining that in his now-famous four-page summary memo Barr \u00ab\u00a0did not fully capture the context, nature and substance\u00a0\u00bb of Mueller’s work.
Oh, was that all, just the \u00ab\u00a0context, nature, and substance\u00a0\u00bb? In other words, pretty much the whole ball of wax. Which is exactly what I surmised, and said, at the time, with a couple of posts, Attorney General Bill Barr Has Made A Huge Miscalculation, and The Barr Cover-Up: Call It What It Is.
Why was I so sure? Because as a former VP of Corporate Communications for a Fortune 500 company, one thing I have pretty keen antennae for is spin. I know spin when I see it; I feel it in my corporate bones. My assessment from the get-go of Mr. Barr’s handiwork? Spin City, baby, as Dick Vitale of March Madness fame might put it. Technically legally accurate, sure, but designed to shape public perceptions by placing the president in absolutely the most favorable possible light, given the facts at hand. Spin City. Slick and legalistic but still spin.
As I said at the time, the fix was in. But now the game’s up. The report’s real author has spoken and he wasn’t pleased with what he read.
Interested parties across the country wasted no time weighing in.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal said of Barr to CNN, \u00ab\u00a0In effect, he lied to the American people.\u00a0\u00bb
Carl Bernstein, investigative reporter of Watergate fame, said to CNN, \u00ab\u00a0The attorney general of the United States misrepresented the context of the most important investigation of the last 44 years.\u00a0\u00bb
Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe posted on Twitter: \u00ab\u00a0AG Barr seriously misled the U. S. Senate on April 10 when he said under oath that he ‘didn’t know’ whether Mueller agreed with his summary of what the Mueller report concluded. The truth? Mueller had written to Barr two weeks earlier saying he definitely didn’t agree. Perjury?\u00a0\u00bb
Credibility and integrity
Not only perhaps perjury, but something that from a management and leadership perspective is just as important: credibility and integrity.
It’s a sad of state of affairs when the credibility and integrity of the attorney general, the highest upholder of laws in the land, is called into serious question. Numerous management studies – not to mention plain old years of common-sense business experience – place integrity and credibility at or near the top of any good leader’s attributes. Integrity and credibility are deeply intertwined; you can’t have one without the other. The best leaders, whether in management or politics, have both.
It’s a sad state of affairs when our nation’s partisan divide runs so deep that an attorney general feels his first loyalty is to protect the president rather than to provide accurate \u00ab\u00a0context, nature, and substance\u00a0\u00bb to the American people. But to sacrifice them at the altar of spin. About the most important investigation of our time.
What should happen to an attorney general who can’t be trusted to be completely truthful with the American people? Should Barr be impeached? Let’s just say, having been exposed tonight by the Washington Post, and more importantly by Robert Mueller, to be challenged in the areas of credibility and integrity, I don’t see how he can continue effectively in the role.<\/p>\n