What About This . . .? By Wayne William Cipriano

The recent report by a second-tier news agency regarding the accusations made by one of President Trump’s close associates about business deals in Russia that the President denied and the super-quick refutation by Mr. Mueller’s investigatory team brought to mind, once again, my surprise at the lack of information we are getting about the “Mueller Report.”

In an environment such as we have almost everywhere, where the word “secret” brings a smile to everyone’s lips who hear it, I find it extremely refreshing that anything in our government appears to be safe from “leaks”. Everyone just about everywhere likes to feel a sense of importance and value, regardless of our place in life. And how often is that importance and value underwritten by possessing information to which others are not privy?

The problem, of course, being that if she keeps that information secret, how is anyone to know she is important enough to possess it? And so, they leak.

Now, it may be well that, in the long run, leaking secrets has proven to be more beneficial to mankind in general than the keeping of governmental secrets. But how would we know that if some secrets are always kept ….secret? Besides, do they really keep stuff they are proud of and want their parents to know about secret? Certainly not for very long.

Putting such considerations aside, I just want to express my respect for all the people working on the Mueller Report and Mueller himself for not talking about what they are doing and making all of us wait for the report. I hope this is continuing when you read this column.

No matter where you stand on the political continuum or which persons and ideas you support, you’ve got to be as pleased as I am that there are some in our government who can keep their mouths shut. No leaks!

When you think about how much  interest is being generated as the Mueller Report’s ‘due date’ approaches, the pressure for “just one little detail” coming from a “really nice reporter” acting on “the people’s right to know” must be intense. And yet, no leaks.

I wonder what techniques were used to assure all the Mueller team members would be silent? Oaths? Threats? Surveillance? Patriotism? Whatever they were, and hopefully still are, I wonder why other governmental groups haven’t employed those same techniques? You’d almost think those groups actually wanted the frequent leaks that always seem to occur.

Anyway, the fact that one group in government can operate without someone blabbing is pleasantly surprising. And it doesn’t seem like our republic is suffering and being damaged by the wait. Transparency, like all things, works best in moderation – as long as I am the one who gets to decide where that moderation should exist!

You know, there may be a lot of governmental groups that operate without leaks that we don’t hear about because they don’t, you know, leak.

Maybe, but probably not.