From The National Affairs Desk

According to all of the news we've been reading since the Mueller report was completed, we're supposed to be sad to learn that the President of the United States didn't collude with the Russians.

No, to find out that whatever other weaknesses and faults he has, the fact that the President isn't a treasonous felon should actually be considered good news.  We should be glad, not angry or sad. And it's normal for the President not to be a traitor - this shouldn't be confusing or disorienting to us.

In these polarized times, a great many people (including your humble narrator to be quite honest) already have pretty strong ideas about the President's guilt or innocence in this matter.  We know that he asked the Russians for assistance in finding Hillary's "lost" emails on Wikileaks - we know because we heard him ask them for help, live on television, during a debate.  What we don't know is how much - if at all - he and his campaign actively participated or at least aided and abetted in the Russian's large-scale manipulation of social media and attempts to influence the election.  Reportedly, Muller's conclusion is that he did not collude, and we have to accept the results of the 2-year investigation for what they are.

However, for whatever he might not be guilty of, plenty of his closest advisors and campaign managers have by now been arrested if not already in jail.  The Muller report did not exonerate the President from obstruction of justice, but left that decision to the Attorney General.  The Muller report does not exempt him from violations of the Emoluments Clause, does not clear him of financial fraud and misrepresentation, does not mean he doesn't have deep financial ties to the Russians and is thereby compromised.  It doesn't clear him of accusations of sexual assault (about which he bragged in the Access Hollywood tapes),  it doesn't tell us whether hush money paid to a porn star was or wasn't an illegal campaign contribution, and doesn't or clear up who allegedly peed on whose bed one night in the Moscow Hilton.  

The man is as crooked and dirty as any President since the Reconstruction Era.  At least he wasn't actively involved on a day-to-day basis with aiding and abetting in the Russian electoral interference.  We hope we can all agree at least that's not bad news.