On Friday, Darrell Issa was on Bill Maher’s show and he said, to the applause of both members of the studio audience, that he was in favor of a special prosecutor to look into the connections between the Trump campaign and Russia rather than letting the FBI and the Senate Intelligence Committee do it. He was also in favor of cutting Jeff Sessions out of the process because Sessions was a Trump endorser. Funny how this standard didn’t apply to Eric Holder at any point in his tenure, but foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds and I guess Issa’s mind is bigger than most.

Well, that was then and this is now.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) backtracked his call for a special prosecutor to look into Russian involvement in the 2016 Presidential election. “I certainly could see where if there is an allegation of a crime at some point, the call for a special prosecutor makes sense,” Issa told CBS News in an interview on Monday but adding, “I think it’s very important to realize there’s been no allegation by any part of this administration or by anyone who’s been to the hearings about any crimes.”

He continued, “So one of the challenges we have is a special prosecutor exists when you have an individual under suspicion. Currently we don’t have that.”

The article goes on to helpfully note, as I did on Saturday, that there may be more to Issa’s statements than mere civic-mindedness:

The California Republican faced a tough reelection bid in 2016, narrowly winning the contest with results too close to call until three weeks after election day.

At some point a special prosecutor may very well be necessary. But not until there is credible cause to believe that a crime may have been committed that cannot be investigated within the current system. To date the accusations are nothingburgers. I suspect that life is going to get interesting for Carter Page. I’d like for it to get interesting for Paul Manafort but my gut tells me we are always going to suspect a lot more than will ever be proven with him. Other than that, even portrayed in their worst light the accusations boil down to “I don’t like it.” That is no reason to charter a special prosecutor.