Whom the Gods of the Beltway Would Destroy, They First Approve FOIA Searches On

Remember 15 days to slow the spread?

Although it’s often incorrectly attributed to Euripides, that 'whom the Gods would destroy' phrase does indeed go back to antiquity, because it has ever been thus when the powerful feel the need for a fall guy. 

And I don't mean just ancient Greeks. U.S. Presidents have been equally ruthless when they wished to separate themselves from an appointee or ally who began to draw more heat than they were worth. See, for instance, the origin of the famous Washington phrase "twisting slowly, slowly in the wind." 

Dr. Fauci is the administration official twisting in the wind today, ever since his emails escaped from the laboratory of the NIH Public Portal and were released into the wild. 

Are the emails all that damning? Objectively speaking, no. But the public is not in the mood for dispassionate analysis. In the same week that a second year of graduating High School students are being given lawn signs to make up for the senior year that was stolen from them, the public mood is ugly. 

Even if they are looked at objectively, there are one or two things in those emails that could make a fair-minded person want to know more. 

Such as the April 2020 message to Fauci from the Director of the National Institute of Health, Francis Collins, with the subject line "conspiracy gains momentum" and Fauci's response completely redacted. That is way too tantalizing for it to not be taken up by any of the Congressmen whom Fauci has made enemies of. 

Plus the May 2021 message in which Fauci said he is "not convinced" the virus originated naturally and expressed support for an investigation. Oh? Has Congress asked him whether he agrees with the content of this Fact Sheet: Activity at the Wuhan Institute of Virology which is still up on the State Department's website? 

Those seem to be legitimate questions, even for someone who is not particularly looking for a villain to blame. 

Fauci has defended himself, of course. He has said the whole email thing is "nonsense" and his message traffic is "ripe to be taken out of context," and I would agree. 

But that doesn’t matter. Merely contrasting Fauci’s private messages to his prolix public statements and Congressional testimony is more than enough to do political damage to him. Really, just the words “I do not recommend that you wear a mask” in Fauci’s email to an acquittance work just fine all by themselves as a smoking gun. 

Once public opinion is inflamed, no one has any use for nuance or context. Next will come the bumper stickers. How about Fauci lied, the economy died? 

When Vanity Fair, of all things, is publishing long articles about Chinese lab leaks and how "those who dared to push for transparency say toxic politics and hidden agendas kept us in the dark," the writing is on the wall for the man who has been the Administration's Number 1 public figure for anything COVID. 

After all, why shouldn't Fauci be forced out of his position? At age 80 he’s the highest paid employee of the Federal government ($417,608.00 as of 2019) and has been Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984. He's stayed too long already, if you ask me. 

Fauci started working for the USG way back in 1968. That's 19 and 68. A bad year for America, although a good one for pop culture. The Beetles released the White Album that year, the Big Mac was introduced (at 49 cents), and theaters were showing The Graduate, Planet of the Apes, and Rosemary's Baby. 

Unfair though it may be, the public needs a villain to blame for the great personal damage that's been done to them for the past year, and the Biden Administration does not need this grief.