TOO HAPLESS TO CONSPIRE, TOO INCOMPETENT TO OBSTRUCT, ACCORDING TO MUELLER

I'm not having the kind of day that permits me to absorb all the Mueller news in a leisurely fashion, but I'll make a brief observation. First, this, from CNN:

The special counsel's investigation into possible collusion found that members of the Trump campaign knew they would benefit from Russia's illegal actions to influence the election, but didn't take criminal steps to help, Robert Mueller's report said.

"Although the investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in the election interference activities," the report said.

I can't help thinking that if this were the Nixon crew we were talking about, they wouldn't be quite so ... passive. (The aiding and abetting was supposed to happen after the inauguration, of course.)

And then this, from The Washington Post:

Repeatedly, it appears Trump may have been saved from more serious legal jeopardy by his own staffers, who refused to carry out orders they thought were problematic or legally dangerous.

For instance, in the early days of the administration, when the president was facing growing questions concerning then-national security adviser Michael Flynn’s conversation about sanctions with a Russian ambassador, the president ordered another aide, KT McFarland, to write an email saying the president did not direct those conversations. She decided not to do so, unsure if that was true and fearing it might be improper.

Trump's inability to ascertain that his own orders have been carried out may have prevented him from being declared an obstructor by Robert Mueller.

So there's Team Trump: awash in dirty deeds, but leaving it to the help -- the Russians -- to hack the election, and prevented by the boss's incompetence from engaging in the full range of intended obstruction. Or as the GOP would put it, pure as the driven snow.