From both the right and the left...

Release it all!

It looks like #ReleaseTheMemo, as the popular hashtag puts it, is a go. Per The Washington Post, a House Republican memo alleging FBI and Department of Justice malfeasance in the investigation into Russian involvement in the 2016 election is going to become public, over the objections of Democrats and the FBI and DOJ themselves. After some redactions from the Trump administration, the memo is being kicked back to the House for a Friday morning release, fulfilling the president's State of the Union hot mic moment that the memo will "100 percent" become public record.

A lot of folks on both the left and right ends of the political spectrum say that releasing the memo is unwise, and they have a decent case: They claim it will give President Donald Trump a freer hand in undermining the Russia investigation being led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, providing Trump ammo with which to attack and maybe fire Mueller or those in the DOJ who are in charge of the whole thing, and installing cronies in their place. They say it's a partisan hit job against law enforcement with no relation to the actual facts of the Russia investigation. And they say that it'll undermine American intelligence gathering by divulging classified information.

The former claims are very likely true. The memo – authored by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes of California, an avowed Trump sycophant – is likely composed of partisan hackery meant to protect the president. (The specific allegation in the memo is reportedly that a warrant used to OK surveillance against a Trump associate during the 2016 campaign was secured via improper evidence, including the now infamous "Steele dossier," which included some quite salacious stuff, if you'll remember.

However, there's a way to go about this that doesn't involve burying information where the public can't see it: Releasing everything.

Now, certainly Mr Garofalo sees the underlying arguments differently than I do,  but we both agree that the best thing to do in this case is release the raw information, rather than just releasing competing memos.

Personally, I think there is way too much emphasis being places on how this will play out regarding the President and the Mueller investigation. There seems to be way too many people who are way too invested in this investigation (which as still uncovered nothing of substance).  If I didn't know any better, it's almost as if many people would openly choose to suppress information that puts the FBI or the DOJ in a bad light, for no other reason than such information might taint the Mueller investigation.

But if it's true, then it's true... and the country has a right to know. If (as is being alleged) there is evidence of political bias as it pertains to our highest law enforcement agencies, then that bias should be exposed. Moreover, anyone associated with such bias should be immediately terminated. We cannot have an FBI or DOJ that treats people differently based on their political affiliation. We certainly cannot have an FBI or DOJ attempting to put their fingers on the scale as it pertains to our own elections.

All of this is far more important than the reputation of one special counsel. The special counsel's job isn't one of public relations, but one of investigation.  Sure, if the job of special counsel was to tell us what he thought, then that person being seen in the highest light would be important. But that's not his job. If it boils down to special counsel providing us with opinions or theories, rather than direct evidence... then he didn't do his job. If the country is split on whether to believe his opinions, then that really tells us that the DOJ went about things wrong, they ultimately picked the wrong person, and that person went about things the wrong way. It has nothing to do with a memo.