Red Meat

Rice may be a starch, but for Republicans the name is red meat.  The story that Susan Rice was unmasking incidentally gathered names of Trump associates was first pushed by Mike Cernovich, recently profiled by '60 Minutes' as a major player in the fake news industry.  One of the listed sources for the story is Joe Digenova, who Rachel Maddow exposed as a long time GOP  provocateur.

Eli Lake, a conservative Bloomberg reporter, adds credence to the story that  Susan Rice unmasked the names of some Trump associates.  Allow me to stifle a yawn.  Requesting unmasking the names of Americans inadvertently gathered when legally surveilling foreign targets was Rice's job as National Security Advisor.  If two Russian diplomats say, "We think we can leverage, 'blank' to lift sanctions," it was her job to unmask the name to get the context.  The suggestion that she systematically requested unmasking of Trump associates is nonsensical.  You don't know who is masked until you unmask.  That precludes Trump centric searches.  Nor is there any allegation that she leaked the material.  She did not use intelligence sources for political purposes.

That dubious distinction falls to the Trump White House.  We now know that heavy intelligence resources have been used to attempt to backup a ridiculous tweet.   No doubt hundreds of hours were spent to find the tidbits leaked to Nunes.

Nor does the Rice distraction in any way vindicate Trump's tweet.  If I say, with no proof, that my neighbor killed a cat, finding out that a mouse died two blocks away is of no moment.