Wait - Mueller Had "Fans"?!

Outgoing FBI Director Robert Mueller smiles as he speaks at the Justice Department in Washington, Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, during his farewell ceremony. Mueller is stepping down in September after 12 years heading the agency. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

My first Twitter notification this morning linked to James Taranto’s reaction last evening to this NYT headline:

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!! pic.twitter.com/HuzrkxzYbp

— James Taranto (@jamestaranto) March 26, 2019

And my initial reaction to that (after chuckling) was to note how odd it was to contemplate Mueller having “fans.” He’s a public servant, not a rockstar.

In fairness to the Times (I don’t feel compelled to say that very often), the headline wasn’t reflective of the paper’s characterization (at least not in the article in question), but rather to “a segment of liberals and activists [who] built up fervent hopes that [the Mueller investigation] would bring Mr. Trump down.” As the Times notes:

They elevated Mr. Mueller, a former F.B.I. director, into an anti-Trump cultural icon, complete with T-shirts, scented candles and holiday-themed songs like “We Wish You a Mueller Christmas.”

….

This group, which differs from more traditional Democratic activists and party operatives, was sure that Mr. Mueller would implicate the president in conspiracies to influence the 2016 election and obstruct justice. That belief drove an almost obsessive Mueller fandom among the group, which formed its own internet subculture among the wider anti-Trump base. Mr. Mueller was personally revered for being everything the group thought Mr. Trump was not, in ideology, integrity and temperament.

Okay. People are just weird. I get hoping that Mueller’s investigation would net impeachment fodder if not outright criminal charges against POTUS. (I didn’t harbor that hope myself — for a variety of reasons — but I get it.) But elevating him to a cult figure, and looking to him to “save us”?! Meh. It’s another example of how we’re — a lot of us, anyway — doing life wrong these days.

“Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.” (Psalm 146:3)

Of course, it’s best to keep one’s sense of humor about it all — as @iowahawkblog so aptly does: