Dramatizing the Mueller Report. Better than nothing?
by digby
Last month I made this tongue in cheek proposal:
At this point, it looks like Trump and his cronies are going to stonewall until after the election, making televised hearings impossible.
I'm starting to think that my joke about having George Clooney and Meryl Streep do a dramatic reading of the events inthe Mueller report may end up being the best we can do to get the story out to the public.
I mean, people are NOT going to read that 400 page report, they just aren't. It will take public testimony to get them to understand exactly what an assault on democracy Trump and these Republicans have perpetrated. And even then, at least 40% of the country will cheer them for their willingness to do whatever it takes to defeat their enemies --- us.
I wasn't serious. But guess what?
A star-studded cast — including John Lithgow, Alyssa Milano, Alfre Woodard, Annette Bening and many others — will perform in a play based on the Mueller report.
The performers will take the stage Monday for "The Investigation: A Search For The Truth in 10 Acts," a play written by Robert Schenkkan. The work by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Schenkkan is based on special counsel Robert Mueller's 448-page report on his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
"Star Wars" actor Mark Hamill, "Veep's" Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Sigourney Weaver are also reportedly poised to participate in the reading. The event is being hosted and livestreamed by LawWorks, an organization that says it works with "bipartisan voices and educates the public on the importance of the rule of law, the role of the special counsel in the justice system, and the integrity of our judicial institutions."
Also among the high-profile list of performers appearing in the one-night-only Mueller report reading in New York: Kevin Kline, Joel Grey, Gina Gershon, Zachary Quinto, Kyra Sedgwick, Piper Perabo, Michael Shannon and Jason Alexander, among others.
The performance comes just days after a Washington theater announced it would host an 11-hour reading of the second volume of Mueller's report that deals with possible obstruction of justice committed by President Trump.
Arena Stage said next month's reading would feature as many as 200 guests, including D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) and former Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), as well as Democratic activists.
I don't know if the media will pay attention to this. If they do it might help around the edges. Obviously it won't convince any Trump voters because they'll just think the actors are making the whole thing up --- "fake news!!!!" And it's unlikely it will persuade any swing voters because it will be seen as "Hollywood liberals" banging their lefty drum.
But maybe it's better than nothing at this point. The Trump strategy is to run out the clock and it looks like it's going to work. The Democrats are compiling evidence for a protracted court battle to clarify the meaning of executive privilege as it's being defined by the Trump administration. I'm sure that's a very worthwhile goal. But it is just one of the important issues facing the country as it deals with overwhelming abuse of power by the President and his henchmen, particularly his partisan hatchet-man at the DOJ, William Barr.
Maybe they'll open impeachment hearings based on something other than the Mueller Report. The corruption is so rampant, they would be under pressure to do it today even if there had been no collusion with the Russian sabotage and ensuing obstruction. They have plenty to work with.
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