As our Patterico pointed out on Monday, Devin Nunes and the slapstick co-conspirators who hoped to bring down the FBI and Justice Department with a 4-page memo were foiled by their own incompetence.

Nunes and company hinged the entirety of their hopes on stating that the FBI failed to disclose the political origins of the Trump-Russia dossier, used to secure the initial FISA warrant on a former Trump campaign aide, Carter Page.

We’ll just ignore the fact that Page had been under scrutiny since 2013, and once referred to himself as an “advisor to the Kremlin.”

The wailing ridiculousness of Trump’s lackeys, that this would be bigger than Watergate, people were going to prison, the world was about to stop spinning on its axis… none of that happened, nor will it.

No, it hasn’t stopped Sean Hannity and his ilk from doing an end zone dance, as if it has happened. They’re invested in the narrative, no matter how far from true or how disproven.

Even Nunes, desperate to remain in the good graces of his liege, is now promising multiple memos.

Hey… one of them might accomplish a ripple towards ending that pesky Russia probe, right?

In Patterico’s piece, he pointed out that Nunes was forced to admit the disclosure of the origins of the dossier were, in fact, disclosed to the court, when applying for the FISA warrant.

From New York Magazine, this observation was made:

It’s not true. As the Ellen Nakashima reported, the application to wiretap Page did disclose that one of the sources of intelligence to generate suspicion that Page might be acting illegally came from a political source. It was mentioned in a footnote on the FISA application. Nunes was asked about this on Fox & Friends. He did not deny the point. Instead he insisted that it wasn’t good enough because the disclosure was merely a footnote. “A footnote saying something may be political is a far cry from letting the American people know that the Democrats and the Hillary campaign paid for dirt that the FBI then used to get a warrant on an American citizen to spy on another campaign,” the distinguished Republican explained.

That was a hollow excuse for attempting to mislead the American people. There’s no real excuse for the damage to our premiere law enforcement agency that Trump, Nunes, and the MAGA crews are attempting to inflict.

There is no political point that can be made that justifies these efforts.

As NY Mag points out, Nunes is quibbling over font size, and felt he could build a case around that.

This was a deeply dishonest attempt to delegitimize the FBI, the Justice Department, and the Russia investigation – an investigation made necessary by the actions of a hostile foreign government, as well as a U.S. president who seems to put more importance on defending the honor of that foreign government than defending the reputation of our own law enforcement and intelligence community.

To paraphrase a comment I read recently: We’re now at a place where Republicans watch “Silence of the Lambs” and root for Buffalo Bill.

Some of you will get that reference.