Why have Dems lost their curiosity over the Trump-Russia story?

Just a short while ago, as CNN insisted that an apple was an apple and not a banana no matter who screamed that it was a banana, and the Jeff Bezos Post began warning America that "democracy dies in darkness," Democrats and their media allies were all about sunshine in matters involving President Donald Trump.

But now, not so much.

What happened to curiosity, anyway?

Curiosity and the pursuit of sunlight were once virtues, whether over presidents waging war by using misleading intelligence estimates of weapons of mass destruction or spymasters engaged in surveillance of the cellphones of Americans in violation of the Fourth Amendment.

We were told that curiosity wasn't only a right, but an obligation of a free people.

But now, obviously, curiosity threatens the Democratic pursuit of Trump. And curiosity is just not a thing anymore.

When special counsel Robert Mueller began investigating Trump for possible collusion with Russia -- and former spymasters turned pundits such as John Brennan and James Clapper referred to Trump as an "asset" of the Kremlin -- I didn't oppose the investigation. I welcomed it.

Many conservatives believed, then and now, in the power of sunlight. Liberals too. Without sunshine, apples and bananas and even a republic can go bad and begin to smell. Like bacteria, cynicism grows in a moist swamp. And such cynicism leads to infection, threatening our republic and our liberty.

So, I welcomed the Mueller probe as a disinfectant. I wasn't alone. Many said the same thing. Americans deserved to know.

And after years of investigation and tens of millions of dollars spent and scads of witnesses and bushels of documents subpoenaed, Mueller determined that Trump and other Americans did not conspire with Russia in the 2016 presidential election.

Yes, Russia did interfere to help Trump over Hillary Clinton and turn Americans against each other. The Russian hacking of Democratic email and the release to WikiLeaks was profoundly embarrassing to the Democratic Party, and to members of the media who were little more than propagandists for the Democratic team.

But Mueller found there was no collusion, hence no crime of conspiracy with Russia, and this angered the Democrats to no end.

Democrats pinned their political hopes on Trump being Putin's bobo. When there was no there, there, they became hysterical. Friendly journalists had given each other Pulitzer Prizes for work about Trump's role in the scheme that Mueller said didn't happen. Some of these journalists were apoplectic, as were CNN, MSNBC and other networks that had invested heavily in a Trump-Russia conspiracy.

Democrats became even more hysterical, if possible, when Attorney General William Barr said he was investigating the investigators. They moved to trash his reputation in advance of any findings.

The Democratic controlled House moves forward on investigating Trump, with the possibility of impeachment an aid to fundraising. They can't forgive him for the sin of defeating Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Meanwhile, Republicans have their counter-narrative and fundraising pitch: The misdeeds of Trump's enemies in the FBI, CIA and National Intelligence.

When Trump authorized the attorney general to investigate the root of the Russia probe, and declassify documents, you'd have thought our freedoms were under assault.

On May 23, U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, stupidly said Barr's investigation was itself a cover-up, and "un-American."

"While Trump stonewalls the public from learning the truth about his obstruction of justice, Trump and Barr conspire to weaponize law enforcement and classified information against their political enemies," Schiff said. "The cover-up has entered a new and dangerous phase. This is un-American."

Sunshine is conspiracy? Transparency in federal investigations is "un-American?" Ridiculous. An idiotic parrot chewing on its own toes and demanding crackers has more sense. And just who weaponized law enforcement Mr. Schiff?

I am not saying any crime occurred, nor that any conspiracy was hatched and then flown like a raptor to take Trump down. It smells, yes, but we don't know. Let's allow sunshine and find out. Isn't anyone curious?

Barr has assigned John. H. Durham, a respected career prosecutor and U.S. attorney in Connecticut, to find out. Also investigating is Michael Horowitz, inspector general of the Department of Justice. They're pulling the threads of how all this started, with the FISA warrant application and who knew what about the former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele. He was the author of the Steele dossier, was on the Clinton political payroll and used Russian contacts to put a political case together against Trump, which was then leaked to the media.

Already there is indication that some players have begun pointing fingers at each other in panic, just like a few sweaty Chicago aldermen I know.

In Washington, on Trump, did they do things by the book?

There was that weird Jan. 20, 2017, email that Susan Rice wrote to herself. It reportedly documented a Jan. 5 meeting between then-President Barack Obama, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, FBI director James Comey and Vice President Joe Biden in which the Steele dossier was discussed.

In her strange email to herself, Rice noted that Obama said everything should be done "by the book."

By the book, really? Who talks like that? Someone covering their behinds?

It's the kind of thing that would send a tingle up a detective's leg, perhaps even a U.S. attorney.

Isn't the Democratic left the least bit curious?

Or has partisan politics allowed them to forget that in the darkness, an apple can quickly become rotten, just like a banana.

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John Kass is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune who also hosts a radio show on WLS-AM.